IGF-1R antibody and its use as addressing vehicle for the treatment of cancer

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to an antibody, in particular a monoclonal antibody, capable of binding to IGF-1R, as well as the amino and nucleic acid sequences coding for said antibody. From one aspect, the invention relates to an antibody, or an antigen binding fragment thereof, capable of binding to IGF-1R and, by inducing internalization of IGF-1R, being internalized into the cell. The invention also comprises the use of said antibody as an addressing product or vehicle in conjugation with other anti-cancer compounds such as toxins, radio-elements or drugs, and the use of same for the treatment of certain cancers.

The present invention relates to a novel antibody, in particular a monoclonal antibody, capable of binding to IGF-1R, as well as the amino and nucleic acid sequences coding for said antibody. From one aspect, the invention relates to a novel antibody, or an antigen binding fragment thereof, capable of binding to IGF-1R and, by inducing internalization of IGF-1R, being internalized into the cell. The invention also comprises the use of said antibody as an addressing product or vehicle in conjugation with other anti-cancer compounds such as toxins, radio-elements or drugs, and the use of same for the treatment of certain cancers.

The insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor called IGF-1R (also called IGF1R or IGF-IR) is a receptor with tyrosine kinase activity having 70% homology with the insulin receptor IR. IGF-1R is a glycoprotein of molecular weight approximately 350,000. It is a hetero-tetrameric receptor of which each half-linked by disulfide bridges—is composed of an extracellular α-subunit and of a transmembrane β-subunit. IGF-1R binds IGF1 and IGF2 with a very high affinity (Kd #1 nM) but is equally capable of binding to insulin with an affinity 100 to 1000 times lower. Conversely, the IR binds insulin with a very high affinity although the IGFs only bind to the insulin receptor with a 100 times lower affinity. The tyrosine kinase domains of IGF-1R and of IR have a very high sequence homology although the zones of weaker homology respectively concern the cysteine-rich region situated on the α-subunit and the C-terminal part of the β-subunit. The sequence differences observed in the α-subunit are situated in the binding zone of the ligands and are therefore at the origin of the relative affinities of IGF-1R and of IR for the IGFs and insulin respectively. The differences in the C-terminal part of the β-subunit result in a divergence in the signalling pathways of the two receptors; IGF-1R mediating mitogenic, differentiation and anti-apoptosis effects, while the activation of the IR principally involves effects at the level of the metabolic pathways.

The cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase proteins are activated by the binding of the ligand to the extracellular domain of the receptor. The activation of the kinases in its turn involves the stimulation of different intra-cellular substrates, including IRS-1, IRS-2, Shc and Grb 10. The two major substrates of IGF-1R are IRS and Shc which mediate, by the activation of numerous effectors downstream, the majority of the growth and differentiation effects connected with the attachment of the IGFs to this receptor. The availability of substrates can consequently dictate the final biological effect connected with the activation of the IGF-1R. When IRS-1 predominates, the cells tend to proliferate and to transform. When Shc dominates, the cells tend to differentiate. It seems that the route principally involved for the effects of protection against apoptosis is the phosphatidyl-inositol 3-kinases (PI 3-kinases) route.

The role of the IGF system in carcinogenesis has become the subject of intensive research in the last ten years. This interest followed the discovery of the fact that in addition to its mitogenic and antiapoptosis properties, IGF-1R seems to be required for the establishment and the maintenance of a transformed phenotype. In fact, it has been well established that an overexpression or a constitutive activation of IGF-1R leads, in a great variety of cells, to a growth of the cells independent of the support in media devoid of foetal calf serum, and to the formation of tumors in nude mice. This in itself is not a unique property since a great variety of products of overexpressed genes can transform cells, including a good number of receptors of growth factors. However, the crucial discovery which has clearly demonstrated the major role played by IGF-1R in the transformation has been the demonstration that the IGF-1R⁻ cells, in which the gene coding for IGF-1R has been inactivated, are totally refractory to transformation by different agents which are usually capable of transforming the cells, such as the E5 protein of bovine papilloma virus, an overexpression of EGFR or of PDGFR, the T antigen of SV 40, activated ras or the combination of these two last factors.

IGF-1R is expressed in a great variety of tumors and of tumor lines and the IGFs amplify the tumor growth via their attachment to IGF-1R. Other arguments in favor of the role of IGF-1R in carcinogenesis come from studies using murine monoclonal antibodies directed against the receptor or using negative dominants of IGF-1R. Actually, murine monoclonal antibodies directed against IGF-1R inhibit the proliferation of numerous cell lines in culture and the growth of tumor cells in vivo. It has likewise been shown that a negative dominant of IGF-1R is capable of inhibiting tumor proliferation.

In such a context IGF-1R has been considered for a long time as an interesting target in oncology. A large number of projects targeting IGF-1R (humanized or human antibodies or small molecules) have been initiated to develop IGF-1R antibodies for the treatment of cancers and more than 70 clinical trials have been performed in various indications. Nevertheless, at this date, none of these projects have been successful and there are no IGF-1R antibodies on the market despite the frequent overexpression of this target described for many patients in a wide series of indications.

Moreover, a series of clinical trials involving anti-IGF-1R antibodies combined to anti-EGFR antibodies in order to target both EGFR and IGF-1R, have failed as none of these antibodies were able to treat KRAS mutant patients.

As a consequence, IGF-1R is not considered now as a major target and, in the research of potential therapeutic antibodies, IGF-1R appears no longer considered as of particular interest.

Nevertheless, it must also be noticed that endeavours to generate IGF-1R antibodies were focussed on naked antibodies, i.e. antibodies useful by their intrinsic properties. In this sense, IGF-1R is considered as a target not suitable for the generation of an immunoconjugate such as an antibody-drug conjugate (referred as “ADC”) as IGF-1R is described as a target also widely expressed by normal cells, including blood vessels. In this sense, it can be noticed that the most recent IGF-1R antibody, i.e. AVE1642, is developed as a naked antibody not armed with a drug. It is the same with the other IGF-1R antibodies currently in development and with all those which failed in clinical trials.

In one aspect, the present invention tends to remedy these issues and is describing an IGF-1R antibody capable of binding to IGF-1R in a specific manner such as it is suitable to be used armed with a drug. More particularly, the invention relates to an IGF-1R antibody presenting particular properties such as it is a perfect candidate for being used armed in the context of an immunoconjugate.

In a first embodiment, the invention relates to an antibody, or an antigen binding fragment thereof, which i) binds to human IGF-1R, and ii) is internalized following its binding to said human IGF-1R.

The terms “antibody”, “antibodies”, “ab”, “Ab” or “immunoglobulin” are used interchangeably in the broadest sense and include monoclonal antibodies, isolated, engineered, chemically synthesized, or recombinant antibodies (e.g., full length or intact monoclonal antibodies), polyclonal antibodies, multivalent antibodies or multispecific antibodies (e.g., bispecific antibodies) and also antibody fragment, so long as they exhibit the desired biological activity. In an embodiment, the invention relates to a recombinant antibody.

More particularly, such a molecule consists of a glycoprotein comprising at least two heavy (H) chains and two light (L) chains inter-connected by disulfide bonds. Each heavy chain comprises a heavy chain variable region (or domain) (abbreviated herein as HCVR or VH) and a heavy chain constant region. The heavy chain constant region comprises three domains, CH1, CH2 and CH3. Each light chain comprises a light chain variable region (abbreviated herein as LCVR or VL) and a light chain constant region. The light chain constant region comprises one domain, CL. The VH and VL regions can be further subdivided into regions of hypervariability, termed complementarity determining regions (CDR), interspersed with regions that are more conserved, termed framework regions (FR). Each VH and VL is composed of three CDRs and four FRs, arranged from amino-terminus to carboxy-terminus in the following order: FR1, CDR1, FR2, CDR2, FR3, CDR3, FR4. The variable regions of the heavy and light chains contain a binding domain that interacts with an antigen. The constant regions of the antibodies may mediate the binding of the immunoglobulin to host tissues or factors, including various cells of the immune system (e.g. effector cells) and the first component (Clq) of the classical complement system.

By “IGF-1R binding fragment” or “antigen binding fragment” of an antibody according to the invention, it is intended to indicate any peptide, polypeptide, or protein retaining the ability to bind to the target (also generally referred as antigen) of the antibody.

In an embodiment, such “antigen binding fragments” are selected in the group consisting of Fv, scFv (sc for single chain), Fab, F(ab′)2, Fab′, scFv-Fc fragments or diabodies, or any fragment of which the half-life time would have been increased by chemical modification, such as the addition of poly(alkylene) glycol such as poly(ethylene) glycol (“PEGylation”) (pegylated fragments called Fv-PEG, scFv-PEG, Fab-PEG, F(ab′)₂-PEG or Fab′-PEG) (“PEG” for Poly(Ethylene) Glycol), or by incorporation into a liposome, said fragments having at least one of the characteristic CDRs of the antibody according to the invention. Preferably, said “antigen binding fragments” will be constituted or will comprise a partial sequence of the heavy or light variable chain of the antibody from which they are derived, said partial sequence being sufficient to retain the same specificity of binding as the antibody from which it is descended and a sufficient affinity, preferably at least equal to 1/100, in a more preferred manner to at least 1/10, of the affinity of the antibody from which it is descended, with respect to the target. More preferably, said “antigen binding fragments” will be constituted of or will comprise at least the three CDRs CDR-H1, CDR-H2 and CDR-H3 of the heavy variable chain and the three CDRs CDR-L1, CDR-L2 and CDR-L3 of the light variable chain of the antibody from which they are derived.

By “binding”, “binds”, or the like, it is intended that the antibody, or any antigen binding fragment thereof, forms a complex with an antigen that is relatively stable under physiologic conditions. Specific binding can be characterized by an equilibrium dissociation constant of at least about 1×10⁻⁶ M or less. Methods for determining whether two molecules bind are well known in the art and include, for example, equilibrium dialysis, surface plasmon resonance, and the like. For the avoidance of doubt, it does not mean that the said antibody could not bind or interfere, at a low level, to another antigen. Nevertheless, as an embodiment, the said antibody binds only to the said antigen.

As used in the present specification, the expression “IGF-1R antibody” should be interpreted as similar to “anti-IGF-1R antibody” and means an antibody capable of binding to IGF-1R.

In an embodiment of the present application, the epitope of the antibody is localized into the extracellular domain of the human IGF-1R (also referred as IGF-1R ECD).

In a particular embodiment, the antibody, or any antigen binding fragment thereof, is capable of binding to IGF-1R with an EC₅₀ comprised between 10×10⁻¹⁰ to 1×10⁻¹⁰, and more preferentially between 8×10⁻¹⁰ to 2×10⁻¹⁰M.

In this sense, “EC₅₀” refers to 50% effective concentration. More precisely the term half maximal effective concentration (EC₅₀) corresponds to the concentration of a drug, antibody or toxicant which induces a response halfway between the baseline and maximum after some specified exposure time. It is commonly used as a measure of drug's potency. The EC₅₀ of a graded dose response curve therefore represents the concentration of a compound where 50% of its maximal effect is observed. The EC₅₀ of a quantal dose response curve represents the concentration of a compound where 50% of the population exhibits a response, after specified exposure duration. Concentration measures typically follow a sigmoidal curve, increasing rapidly over a relatively small change in concentration. This can be determined mathematically by derivation of the best-fit line.

As a preferred embodiment, the EC₅₀ determined in the present invention characterized the potency of antibody binding on the IGF-1R ECD exposed on human tumor cells. The EC₅₀ parameter is determined using FACS analysis. The EC₅₀ parameter reflects the antibody concentration for which 50% of the maximal binding on the human IGF-1R expressed on human tumor cells is obtained. Each EC₅₀ value was calculated as the midpoint of the dose response curve using a four-parameter regression curve fitting program (Prism Software). This parameter has been selected as to be representative of physiological/pathological conditions.

The term “epitope” is a region of an antigen that is bound by an antigen binding protein, including antibodies. Epitopes may be defined as structural or functional. Functional epitopes are generally a subset of the structural epitopes and have those residues that directly contribute to the affinity of the interaction. Epitopes may also be conformational, that is, composed of non-linear amino acids, in other words conformational epitopes are composed of non-sequential amino acids. In certain embodiments, epitopes may include determinants that are chemically active surface groupings of molecules such as amino acids, sugar side chains, phosphoryl groups, or sulfonyl groups, and, in certain embodiments, may have specific three-dimensional structural characteristics, and/or specific charge characteristics.

In a particular embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for selecting an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, which binds to the human Insulin like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF-1R) and is internalized following to its binding to IGF-1R, said method comprising the step of selecting an antibody:

i) which binds to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 52, and

ii) which does not bind to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 52 with an amino acid other than Histidine at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52 or with an Aspartic acid (ASP) at position 491, preferably which does not bind to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 52 with an amino acid other than Histidine at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52 and Aspartic acid (ASP) at position 491.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for selecting an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, which binds to the human Insulin like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF-1R) and is internalized following to its binding to IGF-1R, said method comprising the steps of:

1) selecting an antibody:

-   -   i) that binds to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 52, and     -   ii) that does not bind to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 52 with an         amino acid other than Histidine at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52,         or with an Aspartic acid (ASP) at position 491, preferably which         does not bind to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 52 with an amino acid         other than Histidine at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52 and         Aspartic acid (ASP) at position 491,         and, then, from such an antibody,         2) selecting an internalizing antibody, or an IGF-1R binding         fragment thereof, which percentage of internalization following         to its binding to IGF-1R is at least of 40%, preferably at least         50%, at least 60%, at least 70%, or at least 80%.

In another particular embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for selecting an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, which binds to the human Insulin like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF-1R) and is internalized following to its binding to IGF-1R, said method comprising the steps of:

-   -   1) selecting an internalizing antibody, or an IGF-1R binding         fragment thereof, which percentage of internalization following         to its binding to IGF-1R is at least of 40%, preferably at least         50%, at least 60%, at least 70%, or at least 80%,     -   2) and, then, from such an antibody, selecting an antibody:         -   i) that binds to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 52, and         -   ii) that does not bind to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 52 with an             amino acid other than Histidine at position 494 of SEQ ID No             52, or with an Aspartic acid (ASP) at position 491,             preferably which does not bind to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 52             with an amino acid other than Histidine at position 494 of             SEQ ID No 52 and Aspartic acid (ASP) at position 491.

In a method according to the invention, the step of selecting an antibody upon its characteristics of internalization and of binding, or not binding, to IGF-1R may be performed in any successive order.

According to a particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, which binds to the human Insulin like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF-1R), such as obtained by one of the above cited methods according to the invention.

In another particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, which binds to the human Insulin like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF-1R) of SEQ ID No 52 and is internalized following to its binding to IGF-1R, and which does not bind to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 82 or 92, preferably SEQ ID No 82 and 92.

For an antibody according to the present invention, SEQ ID No 52 corresponds to the amino acid sequence of the human IGF-1R receptor, wherein there is a Histidine at position 494, i.e. wild-type IGF-1R, whereas SEQ ID No 82 corresponds to the mutated amino acid sequence of the human IGF-1R receptor, wherein there is an Arginine at position 494, and whereas SEQ ID No 92 corresponds to the mutated amino acid sequence of the human IGF-1R receptor, wherein there is an Alanine at position 491.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises the Histidine amino acid at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises the Histidine amino acid at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52, with said epitope comprising an amino acid sequence of at least 8 amino acids.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises the Aspartic acid amino acid at position 491 of SEQ ID No 52, with said epitope comprising an amino acid sequence of at least 8 amino acids.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises the Histidine amino acid at position 494 and the Aspartic acid amino acid at position 491 of SEQ ID No 52, with said epitope comprising an amino acid sequence of at least 8 amino acids.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises the Histidine amino acid at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52, with said epitope comprising an amino acid sequence of 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20 amino acids.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises Histidine amino acid at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52, with said epitope comprising an amino acid sequence of at least 8 amino acids, wherein said epitope comprises an amino acid sequence chosen in the group consisting of:

-   -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 487 to the amino acid at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 488 to the amino acid at position 495 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 489 to the amino acid at position 496 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 490 to the amino acid at position 497 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 491 to the amino acid at position 498 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 492 to the amino acid at position 499 of SEQ ID No 52,         and     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 493 to the amino acid at position 500 of SEQ ID No 52.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises the Aspartic acid amino acid at position 491 of SEQ ID No 52, with said epitope comprising an amino acid sequence of 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20 amino acids.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises Aspartic acid amino acid at position 491 of SEQ ID No 52, with said epitope comprising an amino acid sequence of at least 8 amino acids, wherein said epitope comprises an amino acid sequence chosen in the group consisting of:

-   -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 484 to the amino acid at position 491 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 485 to the amino acid at position 492 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 486 to the amino acid at position 493 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 487 to the amino acid at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 488 to the amino acid at position 495 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 489 to the amino acid at position 496 of SEQ ID No 52,         and     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 490 to the amino acid at position 497 of SEQ ID No 52.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises the Histidine amino acid at position 494 and the Aspartic acid at position 491 of SEQ ID No 52, with said epitope comprising an amino acid sequence of 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20 amino acids.

In a more particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises the Histidine amino acid at position 494 and the Aspartic acid at position 491 of SEQ ID No 52, with said epitope comprising an amino acid sequence of at least 8 amino acids, wherein said epitope comprises an amino acid sequence chosen in the group consisting of:

-   -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 487 to the amino acid at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 488 to the amino acid at position 495 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 489 to the amino acid at position 496 of SEQ ID No 52,     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 490 to the amino acid at position 497 of SEQ ID No 52         and     -   an amino acid sequence identical to, or exhibiting at least 80%         identity with, the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at         position 491 to the amino acid at position 498 of SEQ ID No 52.

In another particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, which binds to the human Insulin like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF-1R) of SEQ ID No 52 and is internalized following to its binding to IGF-1R, and which does not bind to an IGF-1R of SEQ ID No 82, or wherein the epitope of said internalizing antibody comprises the Histidine amino acid at position 494 and/or the Aspartic acid amino acid at position 491 of SEQ ID No 52, wherein the percentage of internalization of said antibody following to its binding to IGF-1R is of at least 40%, at least 50%, at least 60%, at least 70%, or at least 80%. The percentage of internalization of an antibody, or of an antigen-binding fragment thereof, may be determined by any method known by a person skilled in the art, such as, for example, a method described in the present specification.

In a particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, according to the invention, wherein said amino acid other than Histidine at position 494 of SEQ ID No 52 is Arginine (SEQ ID No 82).

In a particular embodiment, the present invention relates to an internalizing antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, according to the invention, wherein said amino acid other than Aspartic acid at position 491 of SEQ ID No 52 is Alanine (SEQ ID No 92).

According to an embodiment, the invention relates to an antibody, or an antigen binding fragment thereof, which binds to the human Insulin like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF-1R) and which is internalized following its binding to IGF-1R, wherein said antibody is selected from:

i) an antibody comprising three heavy chain CDRs with CDR-H2 of sequence SEQ ID No. 2 and CDR-H3 of sequence SEQ ID No. 3, and three light chain CDRs with CDR-L2 of sequence SEQ ID No. 5;

ii) an antibody which competes for binding to IGF-1R with the antibody of i); and

iii) an antibody which binds to the same epitope of IGF-1R as does the antibody of i).

The competition for binding to IGF-1R can be determined by any methods or techniques known by the person skilled in the art such as, without limitation, radioactivity, Biacore, ELISA, Flow cytometry, etc, or according to a method such as described in the present specification.

The determination of the binding to the same epitope can be determined by any methods or techniques known by the person skilled in the art such as, without limitation, radioactivity, Biacore, ELISA, Flow cytometry, etc, or according to a method such as described in the present specification.

As above mentioned, and contrary to the general knowledge, the present invention focuses on specific IGF-1R antibodies presenting a high ability to be internalized following IGF-1R binding. As used herein, an antibody that “is internalized” or that “internalized” (the two expressions being similar) is one that is taken up by (meaning it “enters”) the cell upon binding to IGF-1R on a mammalian cell. Such an antibody is interesting as one of the immuno-drug-conjugate components, so it addresses or directs the linked cytotoxic into the targeted cells, preferably cancer cells. Once internalized the cytotoxic triggers cancer cell death.

Preferably, the antibodies according to the invention are all presenting the same sequences for the CDR-H2, CDR-H3 and CDR-L2, the other 3 CDRs being different. This observation seems coherent as it is part of the general knowledge that, regarding the binding specificity of an antibody, the CDR-H3 is described as being the most important and the most implicated with the recognition of the epitope.

Important keys to success with immunoconjugate therapy are thought to be the target antigen specificity and the internalization of the antigen-binding protein complexes into the cancer cells. Obviously non-internalizing antigens are less effective than internalizing antigens to delivers cytotoxic agents. Internalization processes are variable across antigens and depend on multiple parameters that can be influenced by antibodies.

In the immunoconjugate, the cytotoxic brings the cytotoxic activity and the used antibody brings its specificity against cancer cells, as well as a vector for entering within the cells to correctly address the cytotoxic. Thus to improve the immunoconjugate, the antibody can exhibit high ability to internalize into the targeted cancer cells. The efficiency with which the antibody mediated internalisation differs significantly depending on the epitope targeted. Selection of potent internalizing IGF-1R antibodies requires various experimental data studying not only IGF-1R downregulation but also following IGF-1R antibody internalization into the cells.

In one embodiment, the internalization of the antibody according to the invention can be evaluated by immunofluorescence (as exemplified hereinafter in the present application) or any method or process known by the person skilled in the art specific for the internalization mechanism.

The complex IGF-1R/antibody is internalized after the binding of the antibody to the ECD of said IGF-1R, a reduction in the quantity of IGF-1R at the surface of the cells is induced. This reduction can be quantified by any method known by the person skilled in the art such as, as non limitative examples, western-blot, FACS, immunofluorescence and the like.

In one embodiment, this reduction, thus reflecting the internalization, can be preferably measured by FACS and expressed as the difference or delta between the Mean Fluorescence Intensity (MFI) measured at 4° C. with the MFI measured at 37° C. after 4 hours incubation with the antibody.

As non limitative example, this delta is determined based on MFIs obtained with untreated cells and cells treated with the antibody using i) breast cancer cells MCF7 after a 4 hour incubation period with the antibody herein described and ii) a secondary antibody labelled with Alexa488. This parameter is defined as calculated with the following formula: Δ(MFI_(4° C.)−MFI_(37° C.)).

This difference between MFIs reflects the IGF-1R downregulation as MFIs are proportional of IGF-1R expressed on the cell-surface.

In an advantageous aspect, the antibodies, or any antigen binding fragment thereof, consist of monoclonal antibodies triggering a Δ(MFI_(4° C.)−MFI_(37° C.)) on MCF7 of at least 280, preferably of at least 400.

In more details, the above mentioned delta can be measured according to the following process, which must be considered as an illustrative and non limitative example:

-   -   a) Treating and incubating tumoral cells of interest with the         antibody of the invention in either cold (4° C.) or warm (37°         C.) complete culture medium;     -   b) Treating the treated cells of step a) and, in parallel,         untreated cells with a secondary antibody,     -   c) Measuring the MFI (representative of the quantity of IGF-1R         present at the surface) for the treated and the non treated         cells with a secondary labeled antibody capable of binding to         the antibody of the invention, and     -   d) Calculating the delta as the subtraction of the MFI obtained         with the treated cells from the MFI obtained with the non         treated cells.

From this delta MFI, an internalization percentage can be determined as: 100×(MFI_(4° C.)−MFI_(37° C.))/MFI_(4° C.)

The antibodies, or any antigen binding fragment thereof, according to the invention, present on MCF7 a internalization percentage comprised between 70% and 90%, preferentially between 75% and 87%.

A particular advantage of the antibodies herein described relies on their rate of internalization.

It is generally known that, for an immunoconjugate, it is desirable that the used antibodies exhibit a rapid rate of internalization, preferably within 24 hours from administration of the antibody in vivo and, more preferably within 12 hours and, even more preferably within 6 hours.

In the present invention, the internalization rate, also referred as cell surface bound antibody decrease or cell surface antibody decay, is expressed as t½ (half life) and corresponds as the time necessary to obtain a decrease of 50% of the ΔMFI (this aspect will be clearly understood regarding the following examples).

A particular advantage is that the antibodies of the invention have a t½ comprised between 5 and 25 minutes, and preferentially between 10 and 20 minutes.

A particular embodiment of the invention relates to an antibody comprising the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 1, 2 and 3 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 4, 5 and 6.

An embodiment is an antibody, or an antigen binding fragment thereof, comprising the three heavy chain CDRs comprising, or consisting of, the sequences SEQ ID Nos. 1, 2 and 3, or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID Nos. 1, 2 and 3; and the three light chain CDRs comprising or consisting of the sequences SEQ ID Nos. 4, 5 and 6, or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID Nos. 4, 5 and 6.

In another embodiment, the antibody, or any antigen binding fragment thereof, comprises the three heavy chain CDRs comprising or consisting of the sequences SEQ ID Nos. 1, 2 and 3; and the three light chain CDRs comprising or consisting of the sequences SEQ ID Nos. 4, 5 and 6.

By CDR regions or CDR(s), it is intended to indicate the hypervariable regions of the heavy and light chains of the immunoglobulins as defined by IMGT.

The IMGT unique numbering has been defined to compare the variable domains whatever the antigen receptor, the chain type, or the species [Lefranc M.-P., Immunology Today 18, 509 (1997)/Lefranc M.-P., The Immunologist, 7, 132-136 (1999)/Lefranc, M.-P., Pommié, C., Ruiz, M., Giudicelli, V., Foulquier, E., Truong, L., Thouvenin-Contet, V. and Lefranc, Dev. Comp. Immunol., 27, 55-77 (2003)]. In the IMGT unique numbering, the conserved amino acids always have the same position, for instance cystein 23 (1st-CYS), tryptophan 41 (CONSERVED-TRP), hydrophobic amino acid 89, cystein 104 (2nd-CYS), phenylalanine or tryptophan 118 (J-PHE or J-TRP). The IMGT unique numbering provides a standardized delimitation of the framework regions (FR1-IMGT: positions 1 to 26, FR2-IMGT: 39 to 55, FR3-IMGT: 66 to 104 and FR4-IMGT: 118 to 128) and of the complementarity determining regions: CDR1-IMGT: 27 to 38, CDR2-IMGT: 56 to 65 and CDR3-IMGT: 105 to 117. As gaps represent unoccupied positions, the CDR-IMGT lengths (shown between brackets and separated by dots, e.g. [8.8.13]) become crucial information. The IMGT unique numbering is used in 2D graphical representations, designated as IMGT Colliers de Perles [Ruiz, M. and Lefranc, M.-P., Immunogenetics, 53, 857-883 (2002)/Kaas, Q. and Lefranc, M.-P., Current Bioinformatics, 2, 21-30 (2007)], and in 3D structures in IMGT/3D structure-DB [Kaas, Q., Ruiz, M. and Lefranc, M.-P., T cell receptor and MHC structural data. Nucl. Acids. Res., 32, D208-D210 (2004)].

It must be understood that, without contradictory specification in the present specification, complementarity-determining regions or CDRs, mean the hypervariable regions of the heavy and light chains of immunoglobulins as defined according to the IMGT numbering system.

Nevertheless, CDRs can also be defined according to the Kabat numbering system (Kabat et al., Sequences of proteins of immunological interest, 5^(th) Ed., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NIH, 1991, and later editions). There are three heavy-chain CDRs and three light-chain CDRs. Here, the terms “CDR” and “CDRs” are used to indicate, depending on the case, one or more, or even all, of the regions containing the majority of the amino acid residues responsible for the antibody's binding affinity for the antigen or epitope it recognizes. In order to simplify the reading of the present application, the CDRs according to Kabat are not defined. Nevertheless, it would be obvious for the person skilled in that art, using the definition of the CDRs according to IMGT, to define the CDRs according to Kabat.

In the sense of the present invention, the “percentage identity” between two sequences of nucleic acids or amino acids means the percentage of identical nucleotides or amino acid residues between the two sequences to be compared, obtained after optimal alignment, this percentage being purely statistical and the differences between the two sequences being distributed randomly along their length. The comparison of two nucleic acid or amino acid sequences is traditionally carried out by comparing the sequences after having optimally aligned them, said comparison being able to be conducted by segment or by using an “alignment window”. Optimal alignment of the sequences for comparison can be carried out, in addition to comparison by hand, by means of the local homology algorithm of Smith and Waterman (1981) [Ad. App. Math. 2:482], by means of the local homology algorithm of Neddleman and Wunsch (1970) [J. Mol. Biol. 48:443], by means of the similarity search method of Pearson and Lipman (1988) [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85:2444] or by means of computer software using these algorithms (GAP, BESTFIT, FASTA and TFASTA in the Wisconsin Genetics Software Package, Genetics Computer Group, 575 Science Dr., Madison, Wis., or by the comparison software BLAST NR or BLAST P).

The percentage identity between two nucleic acid or amino acid sequences is determined by comparing the two optimally-aligned sequences in which the nucleic acid or amino acid sequence to compare can have additions or deletions compared to the reference sequence for optimal alignment between the two sequences. Percentage identity is calculated by determining the number of positions at which the amino acid nucleotide or residue is identical between the two sequences, preferably between the two complete sequences, dividing the number of identical positions by the total number of positions in the alignment window and multiplying the result by 100 to obtain the percentage identity between the two sequences.

For example, the BLAST program, “BLAST 2 sequences” (Tatusova et al., “Blast 2 sequences—a new tool for comparing protein and nucleotide sequences”, FEMS Microbiol., 1999, Lett. 174:247-250) available on the site http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gorf/bl2.html, can be used with the default parameters (notably for the parameters “open gap penalty”: 5, and “extension gap penalty”: 2; the selected matrix being for example the “BLOSUM 62” matrix proposed by the program); the percentage identity between the two sequences to compare is calculated directly by the program.

For the amino acid sequence exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with a reference amino acid sequence, preferred examples include those containing the reference sequence, certain modifications, notably a deletion, addition or substitution of at least one amino acid, truncation or extension. In the case of substitution of one or more consecutive or non-consecutive amino acids, substitutions are preferred in which the substituted amino acids are replaced by “equivalent” amino acids. Here, the expression “equivalent amino acids” is meant to indicate any amino acids likely to be substituted for one of the structural amino acids without however modifying the biological activities of the corresponding antibodies and of those specific examples defined below.

Equivalent amino acids can be determined either on their structural homology with the amino acids for which they are substituted or on the results of comparative tests of biological activity between the various antigen binding proteins likely to be generated.

As a non-limiting example, table 1 below summarizes the possible substitutions likely to be carried out without resulting in a significant modification of the biological activity of the corresponding modified antigen binding protein; inverse substitutions are naturally possible under the same conditions.

TABLE 1 Original residue Substitution(s) Ala (A) Val, Gly, Pro Arg (R) Lys, His Asn (N) Gln Asp (D) Glu Cys (C) Ser Gln (Q) Asn Glu (E) Asp Gly (G) Ala His (H) Arg Ile (I) Leu Leu (L) Ile, Val, Met Lys (K) Arg Met (M) Leu Phe (F) Tyr Pro (P) Ala Ser (S) Thr, Cys Thr (T) Ser Trp (W) Tyr Tyr (Y) Phe, Trp Val (V) Leu, Ala

A particular aspect of the invention is that the antibody, or any antigen binding fragment thereof, does not bind to the Insulin receptor (IR). This aspect is of interest as the antibody herein described will not have any negative impact on the IR, meaning the Insulin metabolism.

In another embodiment, still another advantageous aspect of the antibody of the invention is that it is capable of binding not only to the human IGF-1R but also to the monkey IGF-1R, and more particularly to the cynomolgus IGF-1R. This aspect is also of interest as it will facilitate the toxicity and clinical trials.

In another embodiment, the antibody of the invention consists of a monoclonal antibody.

The term “monoclonal antibody” or “Mab” as used herein refers to an antibody obtained from a population of substantially homogeneous antibodies, i.e. the individual antibodies of the population are identical except for possible naturally occurring mutations that may be present in minor amounts. Monoclonal antibodies are highly specific, being directed against a single epitope. Such monoclonal antibody may be produced by a single clone of B cells or hybridoma. Monoclonal antibodies may also be recombinant, i.e. produced by protein engineering. Monoclonal antibodies may also be isolated from phage antibody libraries. In addition, in contrast with preparations of polyclonal antibodies which typically include various antibodies directed against various determinants, or epitopes, each monoclonal antibody is directed against a single epitope of the antigen. The invention relates to an antibody isolated or obtained by purification from natural sources or obtained by genetic recombination or chemical synthesis.

In one embodiment, the monoclonal antibody herein includes murine, chimeric and humanized antibody, such as described after.

The antibody can be derived from an hybridoma of murine origin filed within the French collection for microorganism cultures (CNCM, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France), said hybridoma being obtained by the fusion of Balb/C immunized mice splenocytes/lymphocytes and cells of the myeloma Sp 2/O—Ag 14 cell line.

In another embodiment, the antibody of the invention consists of a recombinant antibody. The term “recombinant antibody” refers to an antibody that results from the expression of recombinant DNA within living cells. A recombinant antibody of the invention is obtained by using laboratory methods of genetic recombination, well known by a person skilled in the art, creating DNA sequences that would not be found in biological organisms.

In another embodiment, the antibody of the invention consists of a chemically synthesized antibody.

In an embodiment, the IGF-1R antibody of the invention consists of a murine antibody, then referred as m[name of the antibody].

In an embodiment, the IGF-1R antibody consists of a chimeric antibody, then referred as c[name of the antibody].

In an embodiment, the IGF-1R antibody consists of a humanized antibody, then referred as hz[name of the antibody].

For the avoidance of doubt, in the following specification, the expressions “IGF-1R antibody” and “[name of the antibody]” are similar and include (without contrary specification) the murine, the chimeric and the humanized versions of the said IGF-1R antibody and said “[name of the antibody]”. When necessary, the prefix m- (murine), c- (chimeric) or hz- (humanized) is used.

In another embodiment, the antibody of the invention is selected from:

a) an antibody comprising the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11;

b) an antibody comprising the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 10, 5 and 11;

c) an antibody comprising the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 12; and

d) an antibody comprising the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 8, 2 and 3 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11.

For more clarity, the following table 2 illustrates the CDR sequences, defined according to IMGT, for the preferred antibodies.

TABLE 2 Heavy chain Light chain SEQ ID No. Consensus CDR-H1 1 CDR-H2 2 CDR-H3 3 CDR-L1 4 CDR-L2 5 CDR-L3 6 208F2 CDR-H1 7 CDR-H2 2 CDR-H3 3 CDR-L1 9 CDR-L2 5 CDR-L3 11 212A11 CDR-H1 7 CDR-H2 2 CDR-H3 3 CDR-L1 10 CDR-L2 5 CDR-L3 11 214F8 CDR-H1 7 & CDR-H2 2 213B10 CDR-H3 3 CDR-L1 9 CDR-L2 5 CDR-L3 12 219D6 CDR-H1 8 CDR-H2 2 CDR-H3 3 CDR-L1 9 CDR-L2 5 CDR-L3 11

It will be obvious for the man skilled in the art that any combination of the 6 CDRs as above described should be considered as part of the present invention.

As can be observed from this table 2, all the antibodies described in the table have the same sequences for the CDR-H2, CDR-H3 and CDR-L2, this property being of particular interest as above described.

A specific aspect relates to a murine (m) antibody, or any antigen binding fragments, characterized in that said antibody also comprises light-chain and heavy-chain constant regions derived from an antibody of a species heterologous with the mouse, notably man.

Another specific aspect relates to a chimeric (c) antibody, or any antigen binding fragments, characterized in that said antibody also comprises light-chain and heavy-chain constant regions derived from an antibody of a species heterologous with the mouse, notably human.

In an embodiment of the invention, the antibody consists of a chimeric antibody.

A chimeric antibody is one containing a natural variable region (light chain and heavy chain) derived from an antibody of a given species in combination with constant regions of the light chain and the heavy chain of an antibody of a species heterologous to said given species.

The antibodies, or chimeric fragments of same, can be prepared by using the techniques of recombinant genetics. For example, the chimeric antibody could be produced by cloning recombinant DNA containing a promoter and a sequence coding for the variable region of a nonhuman monoclonal antibody of the invention, notably murine, and a sequence coding for the human antibody constant region. A chimeric antibody according to the invention coded by one such recombinant gene could be, for example, a mouse-human chimera, the specificity of this antibody being determined by the variable region derived from the murine DNA and its isotype determined by the constant region derived from human DNA.

In a preferred, but not limitative, embodiment, the antibody of the invention is selected from:

a) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 13 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80% identity with SEQ ID No. 13 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11;

b) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 14 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 14 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 10, 5 and 11; c) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 15 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 15 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 12; d) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 16 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 16 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11; and e) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 17 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 17 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 12.

By “any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 13 to 17”, its is intended to designate, respectively, a sequence exhibiting the three heavy chain CDRs SEQ ID Nos. 1, 2 and 3 and, in addition, exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98%, identity with the full sequence SEQ ID Nos. 13 to 17 outside the sequences corresponding to the CDRs (i.e. SEQ ID No. 1, 2 and 3), wherein “outside the sequences corresponding to the CDRs” is intended for “excepting the sequences corresponding to the CDRs”.

In another preferred, but not limitative, embodiment, the antibody of the invention is selected from:

a) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 18 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 18 and the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3;

b) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 19 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 19 and the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3;

c) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 20 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 20 and the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3;

d) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 21 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 21 and the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 8, 2 and 3; and

e) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 22 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 22 and the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3.

By “any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 18 to 22”, its is intended to designate the sequences exhibiting the three light chain CDRs SEQ ID Nos. 4, 5 and 6 and, in addition, exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98%, identity with the full sequence SEQ ID No. 18 to 22 outside the sequences corresponding to the CDRs (i.e. SEQ ID No. 4, 5 and 6).

An embodiment of the invention relates to an antibody selected from:

a) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 13 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 13 and a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 18 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 18; b) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 14 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 14 and a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 19 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID NO. 19; c) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 15 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 15 and a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 20 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 20; d) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 16 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 16 and a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 21 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 21; and e) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 17 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 17 and a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 22 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 22.

Chimeric antibodies herein described can be also characterized by the constant domain and, more particularly, said chimeric antibodies can be selected or designed such as, without limitation, IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, IgM, IgA, IgD or IgE. More preferably, in the context of the present invention, said chimeric antibodies are IgG1 or IgG4.

An embodiment of the invention relates to a chimeric antibody comprising variable domains VH and VL as above described in the format IgG1. More preferably, said chimeric antibody comprises a constant domain for the VH of sequence SEQ ID No. 43 and a Kappa domain for the VL of sequence SEQ ID No. 45.

An embodiment of the invention relates to a chimeric antibody comprising variable domains VH and VL as above described in the format IgG4. More preferably, said chimeric antibody comprises a constant domain for the VH of sequence SEQ ID No. 44 and a Kappa domain for the VL of sequence SEQ ID No. 45.

In another preferred, but not limitative, embodiment, the antibody of the invention is selected from:

a) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 23 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 23 and a light chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 28 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 28; b) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 24 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 24 and a light chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 29 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 29; c) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 25 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 25 and a light chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 30 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 30; d) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 26 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 26 and a light chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 31 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 31; and e) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 27 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 27 and a light chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 32 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 32.

For more clarity, the following table 3 illustrates the sequences of the VH and VL, respectively, for the preferred chimeric antibodies.

TABLE 3 Heavy Chain Light chain SEQ ID No. c208F2 Variable domain (VH) 13 Variable domain (VL) 18 Full length 23 Full length 28 c212A11 Variable domain (VH) 14 Variable domain (VL) 19 Full length 24 Full length 29 c214F8 Variable domain (VH) 15 Variable domain (VL) 20 Full length 25 Full length 30 c219D6 Variable domain (VH) 16 Variable domain (VL) 21 Full length 26 Full length 31 c213B10 Variable domain (VH) 17 Variable domain (VL) 22 Full length 27 Full length 32

Yet another specific aspect of the present invention relates to a humanized antibody, or an antigen binding fragment thereof, characterized in that the constant regions of the light-chain and the heavy-chain derived from human antibody are, respectively, the lambda or kappa region and the gamma-1, gamma-2 or gamma-4 region.

In an embodiment of the invention, the antibody consists of a humanized antibody.

“Humanized antibodies” means an antibody that contains CDR regions derived from an antibody of nonhuman origin, the other parts of the antibody molecule being derived from one (or several) human antibodies. In addition, some of the skeleton segment residues (called FR) can be modified to preserve binding affinity.

The humanized antibodies or fragments of same can be prepared by techniques known to a person skilled in the art. Such humanized antibodies are preferred for their use in methods involving in vitro diagnoses or preventive and/or therapeutic treatment in vivo. Other humanization techniques, also known to a person skilled in the art, such as, for example, the “CDR grafting” technique described by PDL in patents EP 0 451 216, EP 0 682 040, EP 0 939 127, EP 0 566 647 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,101, U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,370, U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,089 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,761. U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,641 or U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,054,297, 5,886,152 and 5,877,293 can also be cited.

As a particular embodiment of the invention, and as it will be explicated in more details in the following examples, it is herein described an antibody consisting of the hz208F2. Such humanization can also be applied to the other antibodies part of the present invention.

In a preferred embodiment, the antibody according to the present invention comprises a heavy chain variable domain (VH) having:

i) the CDR-H1, CDR-H2 and CDR-H3 of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3, respectively,

ii) the FR1, FR2 and FR3 derived from the human germline IGHV1-46*01 (SEQ ID No. 46), and

iii) the FR4 derived from the human germline IGHJ4*01 (SEQ ID No. 48).

In a preferred embodiment, the antibody according to the present invention comprises a light chain variable domain (VL) having:

i) the CDR-L1, CDR-L2 and CDR-L3 of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11, respectively,

ii) the FR1, FR2 and FR3 derived from the human germline IGKV1-39*01 (SEQ ID No. 47), and

iii) the FR4 derived from the human germline IGKJ4*01 (SEQ ID No. 49).

In a preferred, but not limitative, embodiment of the invention, the antibody comprises:

a) a heavy chain having CDR-H1, CDR-H2 and CDR-H3 of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3, respectively, and FR1, FR2 and FR3 derived from the human germline IGHV1-46*01 (SEQ ID No. 46), and the FR4 derived from the human germline IGHJ4*01 (SEQ ID No. 48); and

b) a light chain having CDR-L1, CDR-L2 and CDR-L3 of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11, respectively, and FR1, FR2 and FR3 derived from the human germline IGKV1-39*01 (SEQ ID No. 47), and the FR4 derived from the human germline IGKJ4*01 (SEQ ID No. 49).

In an embodiment, the antibody according to the invention comprises a heavy chain variable domain (VH) of sequence SEQ ID No. 33 and a light chain variable domain (VL) of sequence SEQ ID No. 35. Said humanized antibody will be called thereinafter hz208F2 (“Variant” or “Var.” 1).

In another embodiment, the antibody according to the present invention comprises a heavy chain variable domain (VH) of sequence SEQ ID No. 33 wherein said sequence SEQ ID No. 33 comprises at least 1 back-mutation selected from the residues 20, 34, 35, 38, 48, 50, 59, 61, 62, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77, 79, 82 and 95.

By the expressions “back-mutation” or “back mutation” it is meant a mutation or replacement of the human residue present in the germline by the corresponding residue initially present in the murine sequence.

In another embodiment, the antibody according to the present invention comprises a heavy chain variable domain (VH) of sequence SEQ ID No. 33 wherein said sequence SEQ ID No. 33 comprises 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 or 17 back-mutations selected from the residues 20, 34, 35, 38, 48, 50, 59, 61, 62, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77, 79, 82 and 95.

For more clarity, the following table 4 illustrates the preferred back-mutations.

TABLE 4 Amino acid N° 20 34 35 38 48 50 59 61 Murine M I Y K L W K N Human V M H R M I S A Amino acid N° 62 70 72 74 76 77 79 82 95 Murine E L A K S N A F F Human Q M R T T S V E Y

In an embodiment, the antibody according to the present invention comprises a light chain variable domain (VL) of sequence SEQ ID No. 35, wherein said sequence SEQ ID No. 35 comprises at least 1 back-mutation selected from the residues 22, 53, 55, 65, 71, 72, 77 and 87.

In an embodiment, the antibody according to the present invention comprises a light chain variable domain (VL) of sequence SEQ ID No. 35, wherein said sequence SEQ ID No. 35 comprises 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 back-mutations selected from the residues 22, 53, 55, 65, 71, 72, 77 and 87.

In another embodiment, the antibody according to the present invention comprises:

a) a heavy chain variable domain (VH) of sequence SEQ ID No. 33 wherein said sequence SEQ ID No. 33 comprises at least 1 back-mutation selected from the residues 20, 34, 35, 38, 48, 50, 59, 61, 62, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77, 79, 82 and 95; and

b) a light chain variable domain (VL) of sequence SEQ ID No. 35, wherein said sequence SEQ ID No. 35 comprises at least 1 back-mutation selected from the residues 22, 53, 55, 65, 71, 72, 77 and 87.

For more clarity, the following table 5 illustrates the preferred back-mutations.

TABLE 5 Amino acid N° 22 53 55 65 71 72 77 87 Murine S R H R Y S N F Human T S Q S F T S Y

In such an embodiment, the antibody according to the invention comprises all the back-mutations above mentioned and corresponds to an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain (VH) of sequence SEQ ID No. 34 and a light chain variable domain (VL) of sequence SEQ ID No. 36. Said humanized antibody will be called thereinafter hz208F2 (“Variant” or “Var.” 3).

In another embodiment, all the humanized forms comprised between the Variant 1 and the Variant 3 are also encompassed by the present invention. In other words, the antibody according to the invention corresponds to an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain (VH) of “consensus” sequence SEQ ID No. 41 and a light chain variable domain (VL) of “consensus” sequence SEQ ID No. 42. Said humanized antibody, as a whole, will be called thereinafter hz208F2 (“Variant” or “Var.” 2).

In a preferred, but not limitative, embodiment, the antibody of the invention is selected from:

a) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 33 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 33 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11;

b) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 34 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 34 and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11; and

c) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 and 80 or any sequence with at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 80; and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11.

By “any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 33, 34, 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 or 80”, its is intended to designate the sequences exhibiting the three heavy chain CDRs SEQ ID Nos. 1, 2 and 3 and, in addition, exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98%, identity with the full sequence SEQ ID No. 33, 34, 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 80 outside the sequences corresponding to the CDRs (i.e. SEQ ID Nos. 1, 2 and 3).

In a preferred, but not limitative, embodiment, the antibody of the invention is selected from:

a) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 35 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 35 and the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3; and

b) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 36 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 36 and the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3; and

c) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 57 and 60 or any sequence with at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 57 or 60; and the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3.

By “any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 35, 36, 57 or 60”, its is intended to designate the sequences exhibiting the three light chain CDRs SEQ ID Nos. 4, 5 and 6 and, in addition, exhibiting at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98%, identity with the full sequence SEQ ID Nos. 35, 36, 57 or 60 outside the sequences corresponding to the CDRs (i.e. SEQ ID Nos. 4, 5 and 6).

Humanized antibodies herein described can be also characterized by the constant domain and, more particularly, said humanized antibodies can be selected or designed such as, without limitation, IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, IgM, IgA, IgD or IgE. More preferably, in the context of the present invention, said humanized antibodies are IgG1 or IgG4.

An embodiment of the invention relates to a humanized antibody comprising variable domains VH and VL as above described in the format IgG1. More preferably, said humanized antibody comprises a constant domain for the VH of sequence SEQ ID No. 43 and a Kappa domain for the VL of sequence SEQ ID No. 45.

An embodiment of the invention relates to a humanized antibody comprising variable domains VH and VL as above described in the format IgG4. More preferably, said humanized antibody comprises a constant domain for the VH of sequence SEQ ID No. 44 and a Kappa domain for the VL of sequence SEQ ID No. 45.

Still another embodiment of the invention relates to an antibody selected from:

a) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 37 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 37 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 39 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 39; b) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 38 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 38 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 40 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 40; and c) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 and 80 or any sequence with at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 or 80 and a light chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 57 60 or any sequence with at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 57 or 60. For more clarity, the following table 6a illustrates non limitative examples of sequences of the VH and VL for the variant 1 (Var. 1) and the variant 3 (Var. 3) of the humanized antibody hz208F2. It also comprises the consensus sequence for the variant 2 (Var. 2).

TABLE 6a Heavy Chain Light chain SEQ ID No. hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 33 (var. 1) Variable domain (VL) 35 Full length 37 Full length 39 hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 34 (Var. 3) Variable domain (VL) 36 Full length 38 Full length 40 hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 41 (Var. 2) Variable domain (VL) 42

In another preferred, but not limitative, embodiment, the antibody of the invention is selected from:

a) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 and 80 or any sequence with at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 or 80; and the three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11;

b) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 57 and 60 or any sequence with at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 57 or 60; and the three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3; and

c) an antibody comprising a light chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 57 and 60 or any sequence with at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 57 or 60; and a heavy chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 and 80 or any sequence with at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 or 80.

Still another embodiment of the invention relates to an antibody selected from an antibody comprising or consisting of:

a) a heavy chain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 58, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79 and 81 or any sequence with at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID Nos. 58, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79 or 81; and

b) a light chain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 59 and 61 or any sequence with at least 80%, preferably 85%, 90%, 95% or 98% identity with SEQ ID Nos. 59 or 61. Still another embodiment of the invention relates to an antibody selected from: a) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 and 80 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 56, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78 or 80; and a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 57 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 57; and

b) an antibody comprising a heavy chain variable domain of sequence selected from SEQ ID Nos. 56, 64, 68 and 78 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 56, 64, 68 or 78 and a light chain variable domain of sequence SEQ ID No. 60 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80% identity with SEQ ID No. 60.

Still another embodiment of the invention relates to an antibody selected from:

a) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 58 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 58 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

b) an antibody comprising or consisting of a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 58 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 58 and a light chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 61 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 61;

c) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 63 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 63 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

d) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 65 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 65 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

e) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 65 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 65 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 61 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 61;

f) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 67 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 67 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

g) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 69 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 69 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

h) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 69 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 69 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 61 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 61;

i) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 71 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 71 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

j) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 73 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 73 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

k) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 75 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 75 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

l) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 77 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 77 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

m) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 79 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 79 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59;

n) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 79 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 79 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 61 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 61; and

o) an antibody comprising, or consisting of, a heavy chain of sequence SEQ ID No. 81 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 81 and a light chain comprising, or consisting of, sequence SEQ ID No. 59 or any sequence exhibiting at least 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 98% identity with SEQ ID No. 59.

For more clarity, the following table 6b illustrates non limitative examples of sequences of the VH and VL (variable domain and full length) for different variants of the humanized antibody hz208F2.

TABLE 6b Heavy Chain Light chain SEQ ID NO. hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 56 H037/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 58 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 56 H037/L021 Variable domain (VL) 60 Full length 58 Full length 61 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 62 H047/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 63 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 64 H049/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 65 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 64 H049/L021 Variable domain (VL) 60 Full length 65 Full length 61 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 66 H051/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 67 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 68 H052/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 69 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 68 H052/L021 Variable domain (VL) 60 Full length 69 Full length 61 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 70 H057/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 71 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 72 H068/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 73 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 74 H070/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 75 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 76 H071/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 77 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 78 H076/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 79 Full length 59 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 78 H076/L021 Variable domain (VL) 60 Full length 79 Full length 61 Hz208F2 Variable domain (VH) 80 H077/L018 Variable domain (VL) 57 Full length 81 Full length 59

Another aspect of the present invention is an antibody selected from:

i) an antibody produced by the hybridoma I-4757, I-4773, I-4775, I-4736 or I-4774 deposited at the CNCM, Collection Nationale de Culture de Microorganismes, Institut Pasteur, 25, rue du Docteur Roux, 75724 Paris, France on the 30 May 2013, 26 Jun. 2013, 26 Jun. 2013, 24 Apr. 2013 and 26 Jun. 2013, respectively, ii) an antibody which competes for binding to IGF-1R with the antibody of i); and iii) an antibody which binds to the same epitope of IGF-1R as does the antibody of i).

According to another aspect, the invention relates to a murine hybridoma selected from the hybridoma I-4757, I-4773, I-4775, I-4736 and I-4774 deposited at the CNCM, Institut Pasteur France on the 30 May 2013, 26 Jun. 2013, 26 Jun. 2013, 24 Apr. 2013 and 26 Jun. 2013, respectively.

A novel aspect of the present invention relates to an isolated nucleic acid coding for an antibody, or for an antigen binding fragment thereof, according to the invention.

The terms “nucleic acid”, “nucleic sequence”, “nucleic acid sequence”, “polynucleotide”, “oligonucleotide”, “polynucleotide sequence” and “nucleotide sequence”, used interchangeably in the present description, mean a precise sequence of nucleotides, modified or not, defining a fragment or a region of a nucleic acid, containing unnatural nucleotides or not, and being either a double-strand DNA, a single-strand DNA or transcription products of said DNAs.

The sequences of the present invention have been isolated and/or purified, i.e., they were sampled directly or indirectly, for example by a copy, their environment having been at least partially modified. Isolated nucleic acids obtained by recombinant genetics, by means, for example, of host cells, or obtained by chemical synthesis should also be mentioned here.

The invention also relates to a vector comprising a nucleic acid coding for an antibody, or for an antigen binding fragment thereof, according to the invention.

The invention notably targets cloning and/or expression vectors that contain such a nucleotide sequence.

The vectors preferably contain elements which allow the expression and/or the secretion of nucleotide sequences in a given host cell. The vector thus must contain a promoter, translation initiation and termination signals, as well as suitable transcription regulation regions. It must be able to be maintained in a stable manner in the host cell and may optionally have specific signals which specify secretion of the translated protein. These various elements are selected and optimized by a person skilled in the art according to the host cell used. For this purpose, the nucleotide sequences can be inserted in self-replicating vectors within the chosen host or be integrative vectors of the chosen host.

Such vectors are prepared by methods typically used by a person skilled in the art and the resulting clones can be introduced into a suitable host by standard methods such as lipofection, electroporation, heat shock or chemical methods.

The vectors are, for example, vectors of plasmid or viral origin. They are used to transform host cells in order to clone or express the nucleotide sequences of the invention.

The invention also relates to isolated host cells transformed by or comprising a vector as above described.

The host cell can be selected among prokaryotic or eukaryotic systems such as bacterial cells, for example, but also yeast cells or animal cells, notably mammal cells (with the exception of human). Insect or plant cells can also be used.

The invention also relates to animals, other than human, that have a transformed cell.

Another aspect relates to a method for the production of an antibody according to the invention, or an antigen binding fragment thereof, characterized in that said method comprises the following steps:

a) the culture in a medium with the suitable culture conditions for a host cell according to the invention; and

b) the recovery of the antibody, or one of its antigen binding fragments, thus produced from the culture medium or from said cultured cells.

The transformed cells are of use in methods for the preparation of recombinant antibodies according to the invention. Methods for the preparation of antibodies in recombinant form using a vector and/or a cell transformed by a vector according to the invention, are also comprised in the present specification. Preferably, a cell transformed by a vector as above described is cultured under conditions that allow the expression of the aforesaid antibody and recovery of said antibody.

As already mentioned, the host cell can be selected among prokaryotic or eukaryotic systems. In particular, it is possible to identify the nucleotide sequences that facilitate secretion in such a prokaryotic or eukaryotic system. A vector according to the invention carrying such a sequence can thus be used advantageously for the production of recombinant proteins to be secreted. Indeed, the purification of these recombinant proteins of interest will be facilitated by the fact that they are present in the supernatant of the cellular culture rather than inside host cells.

The antibody can also be prepared by chemical synthesis. One such method of preparation is also an object of the invention. A person skilled in the art knows methods for chemical synthesis, such as solid-phase techniques or partial solid-phase techniques, by condensation of fragments or by conventional synthesis in solution. Polypeptides obtained by chemical synthesis and capable of containing corresponding unnatural amino acids are also comprised in the invention.

The antibody, or any antigen binding fragments of same, likely to be obtained by the method above described are also comprised in the present invention.

According to a particular aspect, the invention concerns an antibody, or an antigen binding fragment thereof, as above described for use as an addressing vehicle for delivering a cytotoxic agent at a host target site, said host target site consisting of an epitope localized into IGF-1R, preferably the IGF-1R extracellular domain, more preferably the human IGF-1R (SEQ ID No. 50) and still more preferably the human IGF-1R extracellular domain (SEQ ID No. 51), and still more preferably to the N-terminal of the human IGF-1R extracellular domain (SEQ ID No. 52), or any natural variant sequence thereof.

In a preferred embodiment, said host target site is a target site of a mammalian cell, more preferably of a human cell, more preferably cells which naturally or by way of genetic recombination, express IGF-1R.

Another aspect of the invention is an antibody-drug conjugate comprising the antibody, or an antigen binding fragment thereof, as above described, conjugated to a cytotoxic agent.

The invention relates to an immunoconjugate comprising the antibody as described in the present specification conjugated to a cytotoxic agent.

The expressions “immunoconjugate” or “immuno-conjugate” refer generally to a compound comprising at least an addressing product, such as an antibody, physically linked with a one or more therapeutic agent(s), thus creating a highly targeted compound.

In a preferred embodiment, such therapeutic agents consist of cytotoxic agents.

By “cytotoxic agent” or “cytotoxic”, it is intended an agent which, when administered to a subject, treats or prevents the development of abnormal cell proliferation, preferably the development of cancer in the subject's body, by inhibiting or preventing a cellular function and/or causing cell death.

Many cytotoxic agents have been isolated or synthesized and make it possible to inhibit the cells proliferation, or to destroy or reduce, if not definitively, at least significantly the tumour cells. However, the toxic activity of these agents is not limited to tumour cells, and the non-tumour cells are also affected and can be destroyed. More particularly, side effects are observed on rapidly renewing cells, such as haematopoietic cells or cells of the epithelium, in particular of the mucous membranes. By way of illustration, the cells of the gastrointestinal tract are largely affected by the use of such cytotoxic agents.

One of the aims of the present invention is also to be able to provide a cytotoxic agent which makes it possible to limit the side effects on normal cells while at the same time conserving a high cytotoxicity on tumour cells.

More particularly, the cytotoxic agent may preferably consist of, without limitation, a drug (i.e “antibody-drug conjugate”), a toxin (i.e. “immunotoxin” or “antibody-toxin conjugate”), a radioisotope (i.e. “radioimmunoconjugate” or “antibody-radioisotope conjugate”), etc.

In a first preferred embodiment, the immunoconjugate consists of an antibody linked to at least a drug or a medicament. Such an immunoconjugate is referred as an antibody-drug conjugate (or “ADC”).

In a first embodiment, such drugs can be described regarding their mode of action. As non limitative example, it can be mentioned alkylating agents such as nitrogen mustard, alkyle-sulfonates, nitrosourea, oxazophorins, aziridines or imine-ethylenes, anti-metabolites, anti-tumor antibiotics, mitotic inhibitors, chromatin function inhibitors, anti-angiogenesis agents, anti-estrogens, anti-androgens, chelating agents, Iron absorption stimulant, Cyclooxygenase inhibitors, Phosphodiesterase inhibitors, DNA inhibitors, DNA synthetis inhibitors, Apopstotis stimulants, Thymidylate inhibitors, T cell inhibitors, Interferon agonists, Ribonucleoside triphosphate reductase inhibitors, Aromatase inhibitors, Estrogen receptor antagonists, Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, Cell cycle inhibitors, Taxane, Tubulin inhibitors, angiogenesis inhibitors, macrophage stimulants, Neurokinin receptor antagonists, Cannabinoid receptor agonists, Dopamine receptor agonists, granulocytes stimulating factor agonists, Erythropoietin receptor agonists, somatostatin receptor agonists, LHRH agonists, Calcium sensitizers, VEGF receptor antagonists, interleukin receptor antagonists, osteoclast inhibitors, radical formation stimulants, endothelin receptor antagonists, Vinca alkaloid, anti-hormone or immunomodulators or any other new drug that fullfills the activity criteria of a cytotoxic or a toxin.

Such drugs are, for example, cited in the VIDAL 2010, on the page devoted to the compounds attached to the cancerology and hematology column “Cytotoxics”, these cytotoxic compounds cited with reference to this document are cited here as preferred cytotoxic agents.

More particularly, without limitation, the following drugs or medicaments are preferred according to the invention: mechlorethamine, chlorambucol, melphalen, chlorydrate, pipobromen, prednimustin, disodic-phosphate, estramustine, cyclophosphamide, altretamine, trofosfamide, sulfofosfamide, ifosfamide, thiotepa, triethylenamine, altetramine, carmustine, streptozocin, fotemustin, lomustine, busulfan, treosulfan, improsulfan, dacarbazine, cis-platinum, oxaliplatin, lobaplatin, heptaplatin, miriplatin hydrate, carboplatin, methotrexate, pemetrexed, 5-fluoruracil, floxuridine, 5-fluorodeoxyuridine, capecitabine, cytarabine, fludarabine, cytosine arabinoside, 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP), nelarabine, 6-thioguanine (6-TG), chlorodesoxyadenosine, 5-azacytidine, gemcitabine, cladribine, deoxycoformycin, tegafur, pentostatin, doxorubicin, daunorubicin, idarubicin, valrubicin, mitoxantrone, dactinomycin, mithramycin, plicamycin, mitomycin C, bleomycin, procarbazine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, vinblastine, vincristine, vindesine, vinorelbine, topotecan, irinotecan, etoposide, valrubicin, amrubicin hydrochloride, pirarubicin, elliptinium acetate, zorubicin, epirubicin, idarubicin and teniposide, razoxin, marimastat, batimastat, prinomastat, tanomastat, ilomastat, CGS-27023A, halofuginon, COL-3, neovastat, thalidomide, CDC 501, DMXAA, L-651582, squalamine, endostatin, SU5416, SU6668, interferon-alpha, EMD121974, interleukin-12, IM862, angiostatin, tamoxifen, toremifene, raloxifene, droloxifene, iodoxyfene, anastrozole, letrozole, exemestane, flutamide, nilutamide, sprironolactone, cyproterone acetate, finasteride, cimitidine, bortezomid, Velcade, bicalutamide, cyproterone, flutamide, fulvestran, exemestane, dasatinib, erlotinib, gefitinib, imatinib, lapatinib, nilotinib, sorafenib, sunitinib, retinoid, rexinoid, methoxsalene, methylaminolevulinate, aldesleukine, OCT-43, denileukin diflitox, interleukin-2, tasonermine, lentinan, sizofilan, roquinimex, pidotimod, pegademase, thymopentine, poly I:C, procodazol, Tic BCG, corynebacterium parvum, NOV-002, ukrain, levamisole, 1311-chTNT, H-101, celmoleukin, interferon alfa2a, interferon alfa2b, interferon gamma1a, interleukin-2, mobenakin, Rexin-G, teceleukin, aclarubicin, actinomycin, arglabin, asparaginase, carzinophilin, chromomycin, daunomycin, leucovorin, masoprocol, neocarzinostatin, peplomycin, sarkomycin, solamargine, trabectedin, streptozocin, testosterone, kunecatechins, sinecatechins, alitretinoin, belotecan hydrocholoride, calusterone, dromostanolone, elliptinium acetate, ethinyl estradiol, etoposide, fluoxymesterone, formestane, fosfetrol, goserelin acetate, hexyl aminolevulinate, histrelin, hydroxyprogesterone, ixabepilone, leuprolide, medroxyprogesterone acetate, megesterol acetate, methylprednisolone, methyltestosterone, miltefosine, mitobronitol, nadrolone phenylpropionate, norethindrone acetate, prednisolone, prednisone, temsirrolimus, testolactone, triamconolone, triptorelin, vapreotide acetate, zinostatin stimalamer, amsacrine, arsenic trioxide, bisantrene hydrochloride, chlorambucil, chlortrianisene, cis-diamminedichloroplatinium, cyclophosphamide, diethylstilbestrol, hexamethylmelamine, hydroxyurea, lenalidomide, lonidamine, mechlorethanamine, mitotane, nedaplatin, nimustine hydrochloride, pamidronate, pipobroman, porfimer sodium, ranimustine, razoxane, semustine, sobuzoxane, mesylate, triethylenemelamine, zoledronic acid, camostat mesylate, fadrozole HCl, nafoxidine, aminoglutethimide, carmofur, clofarabine, cytosine arabinoside, decitabine, doxifluridine, enocitabine, fludarabne phosphate, fluorouracil, ftorafur, uracil mustard, abarelix, bexarotene, raltiterxed, tamibarotene, temozolomide, vorinostat, megastrol, clodronate disodium, levamisole, ferumoxytol, iron isomaltoside, celecoxib, ibudilast, bendamustine, altretamine, mitolactol, temsirolimus, pralatrexate, TS-1, decitabine, bicalutamide, flutamide, letrozole, clodronate disodium, degarelix, toremifene citrate, histamine dihydrochloride, DW-166HC, nitracrine, decitabine, irinoteacn hydrochloride, amsacrine, romidepsin, tretinoin, cabazitaxel, vandetanib, lenalidomide, ibandronic acid, miltefosine, vitespen, mifamurtide, nadroparin, granisetron, ondansetron, tropisetron, alizapride, ramosetron, dolasetron mesilate, fosaprepitant dimeglumine, nabilone, aprepitant, dronabinol, TY-10721, lisuride hydrogen maleate, epiceram, defibrotide, dabigatran etexilate, filgrastim, pegfilgrastim, reditux, epoetin, molgramostim, oprelvekin, sipuleucel-T, M-Vax, acetyl L-carnitine, donepezil hydrochloride, 5-aminolevulinic acid, methyl aminolevulinate, cetrorelix acetate, icodextrin, leuprorelin, metbylphenidate, octreotide, amlexanox, plerixafor, menatetrenone, anethole dithiolethione, doxercalciferol, cinacalcet hydrochloride, alefacept, romiplostim, thymoglobulin, thymalfasin, ubenimex, imiquimod, everolimus, sirolimus, H-101, lasofoxifene, trilostane, incadronate, gangliosides, pegaptanib octasodium, vertoporfin, minodronic acid, zoledronic acid, gallium nitrate, alendronate sodium, etidronate disodium, disodium pamidronate, dutasteride, sodium stibogluconate, armodafinil, dexrazoxane, amifostine, WF-10, temoporfin, darbepoetin alfa, ancestim, sargramostim, palifermin, R-744, nepidermin, oprelvekin, denileukin diftitox, crisantaspase, buserelin, deslorelin, lanreotide, octreotide, pilocarpine, bosentan, calicheamicin, maytansinoids, ciclonicate and pyrrolobenzodiazepines, particularly those disclosed in the PCT application published under number WO2011/130598.

In another embodiment, the immunoconjugate consists of an antibody linked to at least a radioisotope. Such an immunoconjugate is referred as an antibody-radioisotope conjugate (or “ARC”).

For selective destruction of the tumor, the antibody may comprise a highly radioactive atom. A variety of radioactive isotopes are available for the production of ARC such as, without limitation, At²¹¹, C¹³, N¹⁵, O¹⁷, Fl¹⁹, I¹²³, I¹³¹, I¹²⁵, In¹¹¹, Y⁹⁰, Re¹⁸⁶, Re¹⁸⁸, Sm¹⁵³, tc⁹⁹m, Bi²¹², P³², Pb²¹², radioactive isotopes of Lu, gadolinium, manganese or iron.

Any methods or processes known by the person skilled in the art can be used to incorporate such radioisotope in the ARC. As non limitative example, tc⁹⁹m or I¹²³, Re¹⁸⁶, Re¹⁸⁸ and In¹¹¹ can be attached via a cysteine residue. Y⁹⁰ can be attached via a lysine residue. I¹²³ can be attached using the IODOGEN method.

Several examples can be mentioned to illustrate the knowledge of the person skilled in the art in the field of ARC such as Zevalin® which is an ARC composed of an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody and In¹¹¹ or Y⁹⁰ radioisotope bound by a thiourea linker-chelator; or Mylotarg® which is composed of an anti-CD33 antibody linked to calicheamicin, (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,970,198; 5,079,233; 5,585,089; 5,606,040; 5,693,762; 5,739,116; 5,767,285; 5,773,001). More recently, it can also be mentioned the ADC referred as Adcetris (corresponding to the Brentuximab vedotin) which has been recently accepted by the FDA in the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

In another embodiment, the immunoconjugate consists of an antibody linked to at least a toxin. Such an immunoconjugate is referred as an antibody-toxin conjugate (or “ATC”).

Toxins are effective and specific poisons produced by living organisms. They usually consist of an amino acid chain which can vary in molecular weight between a couple of hundred (peptides) and one hundred thousand (proteins). They may also be low-molecular organic compounds. Toxins are produced by numerous organisms, e.g., bacteria, fungi, algae and plants. Many of them are extremely poisonous, with a toxicity that is several orders of magnitude greater than the nerve agents.

Toxins used in ATC can include, without limitation, all kind of toxins which may exert their cytotoxic effects by mechanisms including tubulin binding, DNA binding, or topoisomerase inhibition.

Enzymatically active toxins and fragments thereof that can be used include diphtheria A chain, nonbinding active fragments of diphtheria toxin, exotoxin A chain (from Pseudomonas aeruginosa), ricin A chain, abrin A chain, modeccin A chain, alpha-sarcin, Aleurites fordii proteins, dianthin proteins, Phytolaca americana proteins (PAPI, PAPII, and PAP-S), momordica charantia inhibitor, curcin, crotin, sapaonaria officinalis inhibitor, gelonin, mitogellin, restrictocin, phenomycin, enomycin, and the tricothecenes.

Small molecule toxins, such as dolastatins, auristatins, particularly the monomethylauristatine E (MMAE), a trichothecene, and CC1065, and the derivatives of these toxins that have toxin activity, are also contemplated herein. Dolastatins and auristatins have been shown to interfere with microtubule dynamics, GTP hydrolysis, and nuclear and cellular division and have anticancer and antifungal activity.

“Linker”, “Linker Unit”, or “link” means a chemical moiety comprising a covalent bond or a chain of atoms that covalently attaches an antibody to at least one cytotoxic agent.

Linkers may be made using a variety of bifunctional protein coupling agents such as N-succinimidyl-3-(2-pyridyldithio) propionate (SPDP), succinimidyl-4-(N-maleimidomethyl)cyclohexane-1-carboxylate (SMCC), iminothiolane (IT), bifunctional derivatives of imidoesters (such as dimethyl adipimidate HCl), active esters (such as disuccinimidyl suberate), aldehydes (such as glutaraldehyde), bis-azido compounds (such as bis (p-azidobenzoyl) hexanediamine), bis-diazonium derivatives (such as bis-(p-diazoniumbenzoyl)-ethylenediamine), diisocyanates (such as toluene 2,6-diisocyanate), and bis-active fluorine compounds (such as 1,5-difluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene). Carbon-14-labeled 1-isothiocyanatobenzyl-3-methyldiethylene triaminepentaacetic acid (MX-DTPA) is an exemplary chelating agent for conjugation of cyctotoxic agents to the addressing system. Other cross-linker reagents may be BMPS, EMCS, GMBS, HBVS, LC-SMCC, MBS, MPBH, SBAP, SIA, SIAB, SMCC, SMPB, SMPH, sulfo-EMCS, sulfo-GMBS, sulfo-KMUS, sulfo-MBS, sulfo-SIAB, sulfo-SMC C, and sulfo-SMPB, and SVSB (succinimidyl-(4-vinylsulfone)benzoate) which are commercially available (e.g., from Pierce Biotechnology, Inc., Rockford, Ill., U.S.A).

The linker may be a “non cleavable” or “cleavable”.

In a preferred embodiment, it consists in a “cleavable linker” facilitating release of the cytotoxic agent in the cell. For example, an acid-labile linker, peptidase-sensitive linker, photolabile linker, dimethyl linker or disulfide-containing linker may be used. The linker is, in a preferred embodiment, cleavable under intracellular conditions, such that cleavage of the linker releases the cytotoxic agent from the antibody in the intracellular environment.

For example, in some embodiments, the linker is cleavable by a cleaving agent that is present in the intracellular environment (e.g., within a lysosome or endosome or caveolea). The linker can be, for example, a peptidyl linker that is cleaved by an intracellular peptidase or protease enzyme, including, but not limited to, a lysosomal or endosomal protease. Typically, the peptidyl linker is at least two amino acids long or at least three amino acids long. Cleaving agents can include cathepsins B and D and plasmin, all of which are known to hydrolyze dipeptide drug derivatives resulting in the release of active drug inside target cells. For example, a peptidyl linker that is cleavable by the thiol-dependent protease cathepsin-B, which is highly expressed in cancerous tissue, can be used (e.g., a Phe-Leu or a Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly linker). In specific embodiments, the peptidyl linker cleavable by an intracellular protease is a Val-Cit linker or a Phe-Lys linker. One advantage of using intracellular proteolytic release of the cytotoxic agent is that the agent is typically attenuated when conjugated and the serum stabilities of the conjugates are typically high.

In other embodiments, the cleavable linker is pH-sensitive, i.e., sensitive to hydrolysis at certain pH values. Typically, the pH-sensitive linker is hydrolyzable under acidic conditions. For example, an acid-labile linker that is hydrolyzable in the lysosome (e.g., a hydrazone, semicarbazone, thiosemicarbazone, cis-aconitic amide, orthoester, acetal, ketal, or the like) can be used. Such linkers are relatively stable under neutral pH conditions, such as those in the blood, but are unstable at below pH 5.5 or 5.0, the approximate pH of the lysosome. In certain embodiments, the hydrolyzable linker is a thioether linker (such as, e.g., a thioether attached to the therapeutic agent via an acylhydrazone bond.

In yet other embodiments, the linker is cleavable under reducing conditions (e.g., a disulfide linker). A variety of disulfide linkers are known in the art, including, for example, those that can be formed using SATA (N-succinimidyl-S-acetylthioacetate), SPDP (N-succinimidyl-3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate), SPDB (N-succinimidyl-3-(2-pyridyldithio)butyrate) and SMPT (N-succinimidyl-oxycarbonyl-alpha-methyl-alpha-(2-pyridyl-dithio)toluene)-, SPDB and SMPT.

As non limitative example of non-cleavable or “non reductible” linkers, it can be mentioned the immunoconjugate Trastuzumab-DM1 (TDM1) which combines trastuzumab with a linked chemotherapy agent, maytansine.

In a preferred embodiment, the immunoconjugate of the invention may be prepared by any method known by the person skilled in the art such as, without limitation, i) reaction of a nucleophilic group of the antibody with a bivalent linker reagent followed by reaction with the cytotoxic agent or ii) reaction of a nucleophilic group of a cytotoxic agent with a bivalent linker reagent followed by reaction with the nucleophilic group of the antibody.

Nucleophilic groups on antibody include, without limitation, N-terminal amine groups, side chain amine groups, e.g. lysine, side chain thiol groups, and sugar hydroxyl or amino groups when the antigen binding protein is glycosylated. Amine, thiol, and hydroxyl groups are nucleophilic and capable of reacting to form covalent bonds with electrophilic groups on linker moieties and linker reagents including, without limitation, active esters such as NHS esters, HOBt esters, haloformates, and acid halides; alkyl and benzyl halides such as haloacetamides; aldehydes, ketones, carboxyl, and maleimide groups. The antibody may have reducible interchain disulfides, i.e. cysteine bridges. The antibody may be made reactive for conjugation with linker reagents by treatment with a reducing agent such as DTT (dithiothreitol). Each cysteine bridge will thus form, theoretically, two reactive thiol nucleophiles. Additional nucleophilic groups can be introduced into the antibody through any reaction known by the person skilled in the art. As non limitative example, reactive thiol groups may be introduced into the antibody by introducing one or more cysteine residues.

Immunoconjugates may also be produced by modification of the antibody to introduce electrophilic moieties, which can react with nucleophilic substituents on the linker reagent or cytotoxic agent. The sugars of glycosylated antibody may be oxidized to form aldehyde or ketone groups which may react with the amine group of linker reagents or cytotoxic agent. The resulting imine Schiff base groups may form a stable linkage, or may be reduced to form stable amine linkages. In one embodiment, reaction of the carbohydrate portion of a glycosylated antibody with either galactose oxidase or sodium meta-periodate may yield carbonyl (aldehyde and ketone) groups in the antibody that can react with appropriate groups on the drug. In another embodiment, antibodies containing N-terminal serine or threonine residues can react with sodium meta-periodate, resulting in production of an aldehyde in place of the first amino acid.

In certain preferred embodiments, the linker unit may have the following general formula: --Ta--Ww--Yy--

wherein:

-T- is a stretcher unit;

a is 0 or 1;

-W- is an amino acid unit;

w is independently an integer ranging from 1 to 12;

-Y- is a spacer unit;

y is 0, 1 or 2.

The stretcher unit (-T-), when present, links the antibody to an amino acid unit (-W-). Useful functional groups that can be present on the antibody, either naturally or via chemical manipulation, include sulfhydryl, amino, hydroxyl, the anomeric hydroxyl group of a carbohydrate, and carboxyl. Suitable functional groups are sulfhydryl and amino. Sulfhydryl groups can be generated by reduction of the intramolecular disulfide bonds of the antibody, if present. Alternatively, sulfhydryl groups can be generated by reaction of an amino group of a lysine moiety of the antibody with 2-iminothiolane or other sulfhydryl generating reagents. In specific embodiments, the antibody is a recombinant antibody and is engineered to carry one or more lysines. More preferably, the antibody can be engineered to carry one or more Cysteines (cf. ThioMabs).

In certain specific embodiments, the stretcher unit forms a bond with a sulfur atom of the antibody. The sulfur atom can be derived from a sulfhydryl (—SH) group of a reduced antibody.

In certain other specific embodiments, the stretcher unit is linked to the antibody via a disulfide bond between a sulfur atom of the antibody and a sulfur atom of the stretcher unit.

In other specific embodiments, the reactive group of the stretcher contains a reactive site that can be reactive to an amino group of the antibody. The amino group can be that of an arginine or a lysine. Suitable amine reactive sites include, but are not limited to, activated esters such as succinimide esters, 4-nitrophenyl esters, pentafluorophenyl esters, anhydrides, acid chlorides, sulfonyl chlorides, isocyanates and isothiocyanates.

In yet another aspect, the reactive function of the stretcher contains a reactive site that is reactive to a modified carbohydrate group that can be present on the antibody. In a specific embodiment, the antibody is glycosylated enzymatically to provide a carbohydrate moiety. The carbohydrate may be mildly oxidized with a reagent such as sodium periodate and the resulting carbonyl unit of the oxidized carbohydrate can be condensed with a stretcher that contains a functionality such as a hydrazide, an oxime, a reactive amine, a hydrazine, a thiosemicarbazide, a hydrazine carboxylate, or an arylhydrazide.

The amino acid unit (-W-) links the stretcher unit (-T-) to the Spacer unit (-Y-) if the spacer unit is present, and links the stretcher unit to the cytotoxic agent if the spacer unit is absent.

As above mentioned, -Ww- may be a dipeptide, tripeptide, tetrapeptide, pentapeptide, hexapeptide, heptapeptide, octapeptide, nonapeptide, decapeptide, undecapeptide or dodecapeptide unit.

In some embodiments, the amino acid unit may comprise amino acid residues such as, without limitation, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, proline, lysine protected with acetyl or formyl, arginine, arginine protected with tosyl or nitro groups, histidine, ornithine, ornithine protected with acetyl or formyl and citrulline. Exemplary amino acid linker components include preferably a dipeptide, a tripeptide, a tetrapeptide or a pentapeptide.

Exemplary dipeptides include: Val-Cit, Ala-Val, Ala-Ala, Val-Ala, Lys-Lys, Cit-Cit, Val-Lys, Ala-Phe, Phe-Lys, Ala-Lys, Phe-Cit, Leu-Cit, Ile-Cit, Trp-Cit, Phe-Ala, Phe-N⁹-tosyl-Arg, Phe-N⁹-Nitro-Arg.

Exemplary tripeptides include: Val-Ala-Val, Ala-Asn-Val, Val-Leu-Lys, Ala-Ala-Asn, Phe-Phe-Lys, Gly-Gly-Gly, D-Phe-Phe-Lys, Gly-Phe-Lys.

Exemplary tetrapeptide include: Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly (SEQ ID NO. 53), Ala-Leu-Ala-Leu (SEQ ID NO. 54).

Exemplary pentapeptide include: Pro-Val-Gly-Val-Val (SEQ ID NO. 55).

Amino acid residues which comprise an amino acid linker component include those occurring naturally, as well as minor amino acids and non-naturally occurring amino acid analogs, such as citrulline. Amino acid linker components can be designed and optimized in their selectivity for enzymatic cleavage by a particular enzyme, for example, a tumor-associated protease, cathepsin B, C and D, or a plasmin protease.

The amino acid unit of the linker can be enzymatically cleaved by an enzyme including, but not limited to, a tumor-associated protease to liberate the cytotoxic agent.

The amino acid unit can be designed and optimized in its selectivity for enzymatic cleavage by a particular tumor-associated protease. The suitable units are those whose cleavage is catalyzed by the proteases, cathepsin B, C and D, and plasmin.

The spacer unit (-Y-), when present, links an amino acid unit to the cytotoxic agent. Spacer units are of two general types: self-immolative and non self-immolative. A non self-immolative spacer unit is one in which part or all of the spacer unit remains bound to the cytotoxic agent after enzymatic cleavage of an amino acid unit from the immunoconjugate. Examples of a non self-immolative spacer unit include, but are not limited to a (glycine-glycine) spacer unit and a glycine spacer unit. To liberate the cytotoxic agent, an independent hydrolysis reaction should take place within the target cell to cleave the glycine-drug unit bond.

In another embodiment, a non self-immolative the spacer unit (-Y-) is -Gly-.

In one embodiment, the immunoconjugate lacks a spacer unit (y=0). Alternatively, an immunoconjugate containing a self-immolative spacer unit can release the cytotoxic agent without the need for a separate hydrolysis step. In these embodiments, -Y- is a p-aminobenzyl alcohol (PAB) unit that is linked to -Ww- via the nitrogen atom of the PAB group, and connected directly to -D via a carbonate, carbamate or ether group.

Other examples of self-immolative spacers include, but are not limited to, aromatic compounds that are electronically equivalent to the PAB group such as 2-aminoimidazol-5-methanol derivatives and ortho or para-aminobenzylacetals. Spacers can be used that undergo facile cyclization upon amide bond hydrolysis, such as substituted and unsubstituted 4-aminobutyric acid amides, appropriately substituted bicyclo[2.2.1] and bicyclo[2.2.2] ring systems and 2-aminophenylpropionic acid amides.

In an alternate embodiment, the spacer unit is a branched bis(hydroxymethyl)styrene (BHMS) unit, which can be used to incorporate additional cytotoxic agents.

The drug loading also referred as the Drug-Antibody ratio (DAR) is the average number of PBD drugs per cell binding agent.

In the case of an antibody IgG1 isotype, where the drugs are bound to cysteines after partial antibody reduction, drug loading may range from 1 to 8 drugs (D) per antibody, i.e. where 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 drug moieties are covalently attached to the antibody.

In the case of an antibody IgG2 isotype, where the drugs are bound to cysteines after partial antibody reduction, drug loading may range from 1 to 12 drugs (D) per antibody, i.e. where 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 drug moieties are covalently attached to the antibody.

Compositions of ADC include collections of cell binding agents, e.g. antibodies, conjugated with a range of drugs, from 1 to 8 or 1 to 12.

Where drugs are bound to lysines, drug loading may range from 1 to 80 drugs (D) per cell antibody, although an upper limit of 40, 20, 10 or 8 may be preferred. Compositions of ADC include collections of cell binding agents, e.g. antibodies, conjugated with a range of drugs, from 1 to 80, 1 to 40, 1 to 20, 1 to 10 or 1 to 8.

The average number of drugs per antibody in preparations of ADC from conjugation reactions may be characterized by conventional means. The quantitative distribution of ADC in terms of drug ratio may also be determined. For some antibody-drug conjugates, drug ratio may be limited by the number of attachment sites on the antibody. For example, an antibody may have only one or several cysteine thiol groups, or may have only one or several sufficiently reactive thiol groups through which a linker may be attached. Higher drug loading, e.g. drug ratio >5, may cause aggregation, insolubility, toxicity, or loss of cellular permeability of certain antibody-drug conjugates.

Certain antibodies have reducible interchain disulfides, i.e. cysteine bridges. Antibodies may be made reactive for conjugation with linker reagents by treatment with a reducing agent such as DTT (dithiothreitol). Each cysteine bridge will thus form, theoretically, two reactive thiol nucleophiles. Additional nucleophilic groups can be introduced into antibodies through the reaction of lysines with 2-iminothiolane (Traut's reagent) resulting in conversion of an amine into a thiol. Reactive thiol groups may be introduced into the antibody (or fragment thereof) by engineering one, two, three, four, or more cysteine residues (e.g., preparing mutant antibodies comprising one or more non-native cysteine amino acid residues). U.S. Pat. No. 7,521,541 teaches engineering antibodies by introduction of reactive cysteine amino acids.

Cysteine amino acids may be engineered at reactive sites in an antibody and which do not form intrachain or intermolecular disulfide linkages (Junutula, et al., 2008b Nature Biotech., 26(8):925-932; Dornan et al (2009) Blood 114(13):2721-2729; U.S. Pat. No. 7,521,541; U.S. Pat. No. 7,723,485; WO2009/052249). The engineered cysteine thiols may react with linker reagents or the drug-linker reagents of the present invention which have thiol-reactive, electrophilic groups such as maleimide or alpha-halo amides to form ADC with cysteine engineered antibodies and the PBD drug moieties. The location of the drug moiety can thus be designed, controlled, and known. The drug loading can be controlled since the engineered cysteine thiol groups typically react with thiol-reactive linker reagents or drug-linker reagents in high yield. Engineering an IgG antibody to introduce a cysteine amino acid by substitution at a single site on the heavy or light chain gives two new cysteines on the symmetrical antibody. A drug loading near 2 can be achieved with near homogeneity of the conjugation product ADC.

In addition, the invention also relates to an immunoconjugate or an antibody-drug conjugate as above described for use as a medicament.

Also, the invention further relates to an immunoconjugate or an antibody-drug conjugate as above described for use in the treatment of cancer.

The invention relates to antibody-drug conjugate as above described for use as a medicament. In a particular embodiment, the invention relates to antibody-drug conjugate as above described for use in the treatment of cancer. In a more particular embodiment, the invention relates to antibody-drug conjugate as above described for use in the treatment of IGF-1R expressing cancer, or IGF-1R related cancers.

IGF-1R related cancers include tumoral cells expressing or over-expressing whole or part of the IGF-1R at their surface.

More particularly, said cancers are breast, colon, esophageal carcinoma, hepatocellular, gastric, glyoma, lung, melanoma, osteosarcoma, ovarian, prostate, rhabdomyosarcoma, renal, thyroid, uterine endometrial cancer and any drug resistance phenomena.

In another aspect, the present invention relates to the use of an antibody-drug conjugate according to the invention for the treatment of an IGF-1R expressing cancer.

Another object of the invention is a pharmaceutical composition comprising an antibody according to the invention or an antibody-drug conjugate, or immunoconjugate, as described in the specification.

More particularly, the invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising an antibody according to the invention or an antibody-drug conjugate, or the immunoconjugate above described and at least an excipient and/or a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle.

The invention concerns a pharmaceutical composition comprising the antibody or the antibody-drug conjugate above described, and at least an excipient and/or a pharmaceutical acceptable vehicle.

In the present description, the expression “pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle” or “excipient” is intended to indicate a compound or a combination of compounds entering into a pharmaceutical composition not provoking secondary reactions and which allows, for example, facilitation of the administration of the active compound(s), an increase in its lifespan and/or in its efficacy in the body, an increase in its solubility in solution or else an improvement in its conservation. These pharmaceutically acceptable vehicles and excipients are well known and will be adapted by the person skilled in the art as a function of the nature and of the mode of administration of the active compound(s) chosen.

Preferably, these immunoconjugates will be administered by the systemic route, in particular by the intravenous route, by the intramuscular, intradermal, intraperitoneal or subcutaneous route, or by the oral route. In a more preferred manner, the composition comprising the immunoconjugates will be administered several times, in a sequential manner.

Their modes of administration, dosages and optimum pharmaceutical forms can be determined according to the criteria generally taken into account in the establishment of a treatment adapted to a patient such as, for example, the age or the body weight of the patient, the seriousness of his/her general condition, the tolerance to the treatment and the secondary effects noted.

In another aspect, the present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising an antibody according to the invention or an antibody-drug conjugate, or the immunoconjugate above described and at least an excipient and/or a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle for use in the treatment of cancer. In a more particular aspect, the present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising an antibody according to the invention or an antibody-drug conjugate, or the immunoconjugate above described and at least an excipient and/or a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle for use in the treatment of an IGF-1R expressing cancer.

The invention also relates to a method for the treatment of cancer in a subject, and in particular for the treatment of an IGF-1R expressing cancer, comprising administering to said subject an effective amount of at least an antibody-drug conjugate according to the invention. The present invention further relates to a method for the treatment of cancer in a subject, and in particular for the treatment of an IGF-1R expressing cancer, comprising administering to said subject an effective amount of a pharmaceutical composition according to the invention.

In another embodiment, the present invention relates to a method of delivering a drug or a medicament to an IGF-1R expressing cancer cell in a subject, comprising administering to said subject an effective amount of at least the antibody-drug conjugate according to the invention or a pharmaceutical composition according to the invention.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention appear in the continuation of the description with the examples and the figures whose legends are represented below.

FIGURE LEGENDS

FIG. 1: Example of Biacore binding profile obtained with 3 antibodies on hIGF-1R ECD captured by an anti-His-Tag antibody.

FIG. 2: Epitope mapping scheme defined from the panel of 15 anti-hIGF-1R monoclonal antibodies witch defined 5 epitope groups. The numbering of the groups is not linked to a position regarding the sequence nor the 3D structure of the antigen.

FIGS. 3A to 3C: Antibody binding to the human native IGF-1R by FACS analyses. FIG. 3A represents the titration curve, on MCF-7 cell line, of one chimeric anti-IGF-1R Ab representative for each epitope clustering group. MFI represents the mean of fluorescent intensity. FIG. 3B represents the EC₅₀ of both murine and chimeric anti-IGF-1R antibodies on the MCF-7 cell line. FIG. 3C represents the B_(max) of chimeric anti-IGF-1R antibodies on MCF-7 cell line.

FIGS. 4A and 4B: Evaluation of hIGF-1R recognition using transfected vs non transfected cells. FIG. 4A represents titration curves of one chimeric anti-IGF-1R Ab representative of each epitope clustering group on IGF-1R⁺ cell line. MFI represents the mean of fluorescent intensity. FIG. 4B represents the binding of one chimeric anti-IGF-1R Ab representative of each epitope clustering group on the human IGF-1R⁻ cell line. MFI represents the mean of fluorescent intensity.

FIGS. 5A and 5B: Evaluation of the specificity of Abs to hIGF-1R vs hIR using transfected cells. FIG. 5A represents the binding of murine anti-IGF-1R Ab on the hIR⁺ transfected cell line. FIG. 5B represents the binding of chimeric anti-IGF-1R Ab on the IR+ cell line. MFI represents the mean of fluorescent intensity. In panel A and B the commercially available anti-hIR antibody described as GRO5 (Calbiochem) has been introduced as a positive control.

FIG. 6: Binding of murine anti-IGF-1R Ab on the IM-9 cell line. MFI represents the mean of fluorescent intensity. The GRO5 anti-hIR Mab was introduced as a positive control.

FIGS. 7A, 7B and 7C: Evaluation of recognition of the monkey IGF-1R. FIG. 7A represents the titration curves of one chimeric anti-IGF-1R Ab representative of each epitope clustering group on the COS-7 cell line. MFI represents the mean of fluorescent intensity. FIG. 7B represents the EC₅₀ of both murine and chimeric anti-IGF-1R antibodies on COS-7 cell line. FIG. 7C represents the EC₅₀ of chimeric anti-IGF-1R antibodies on both hIGF-1R⁺ transfected cells and COS-7 cells. GR11L (Calbiochem) was introduced as a positive control.

FIG. 8: Comparison of c208F2 binding on either hIGF-1R ECD or Cynomolgus monkey IGF-1R ECD using a Biacore assay. Sensorgrams obtained on a SPR technology based Biacore X100 using a CM5 sensorchip activated with more the 11000 RU of mouse anti-Tag His antibody chemically grafted to the carboxymethyl dextran matrix. The experiment is run at a flow rate of 30 μl/min at 25° C. using the HBS-EP+ as the running and samples diluting buffer. The figure shows the superposition of 4 independent sensorgrams aligned on the x-axis at the beginning of the first injection of the analytes and on the y-axis by the baseline defined just before this first injection. The sensorgrams obtained with the capture of the human based sequence of the recombinant soluble IGF-1R are marked by diamonds. The sensorgrams obtained with the capture of the cynomolgus based sequence of the recombinant soluble IGF-1R are marked by triangles. White symbols correspond to the blank cycles (5 injections of the running buffer) and black symbols correspond to the injections of the growing range of concentrations of c208F2 (5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 nM).

FIG. 9: Evaluation of the intrinsic effect of anti-hIGF-1R antibodies on the receptor phosphorylation compared to IGF1.

FIG. 10: Inhibition of IGF-1R phosphorylation in response to IGF-1 by murine anti-hIGF-1R.

FIG. 11: Cell surface binding of anti-IGF-1R antibodies is down-regulated at 37° C. MCF-7 cells were incubated at 4° C. or 37° C. for 4 h with 10 μg/ml of each Ab. The figure represents the ΔMFI.

FIGS. 12A and 12B: Antibody surface decay. Cell surface bound antibody was assessed after 10, 20, 30, 60 and 120 min at 37° C. FIG. 12A represents the % of remaining IGF-1R in comparison to the signal intensity measured at 4° C. FIG. 12B represents Half Life calculation using Prims Software and using exponential decay fitting.

FIG. 13: Kinetic of antibody internalization evaluated by FACS analyses. Cells were incubated with 10 μg/ml of murine Abs for 0, 30 or 60 min at 37° C. Cells were permeabilized or not and incubated with a secondary anti-mouse IgG-Alexa 488. Membrane corresponds to the signal intensity w/o permeabilization. Total correspond to the signal intensity after cell permeabilization and cytoplasmic corresponds to internalized Ab. The name of each evaluated antibody is depicted on the top of each graph.

FIGS. 14A to 14D: Imaging Ab internalization. FIG. 14A: MCF-7 cells incubated with m208F2 for 20 min. at 4° C. and washed before incubation [a)] at 37° C. for 15 [b)], 30 [c)] and 60 [d)] min. Cells were fixed and permeabilized. The m208F2 Ab was revealed using an anti-mouse IgG Alexa488 and Lamp-1 was revealed with a rabbit anti-Lamp-1 antibody and with a secondary anti-rabbit IgG Alexa 555. FIG. 14B to 14D: MCF-7 cells were incubated for 30 minutes at 37° C. with each of the other anti-hIGF-1R murine antibody to be tested and then stained as described above. Colocalization was identified using the colocalization highlighter plug-in of the Image J software.

FIG. 15: Involvement of the lysosome pathway in antibody degradation

FIG. 16: Evaluation of the binding of anti-hIG-1R murine antibodies at different pH. The EC50s of the binding of the different antibodies was evaluated on MCF-7 using buffer with different pH ranging from 5 to 8.

FIG. 17: Evaluation of the ability of the selected anti-IGF-1R Abs to induce cytotoxicity on a Fab-ZAP assay. A) MCF-7 cells were incubated with increasing concentrations of the chimeric anti-IGF-1R antibodies in combination with the human Fab-ZAP kit. Cell viability was measured using CellTiter-Glo® luminescent cell viability assay. The c9G4 chimeric antibody was used as irrelevant antibody. B) IC₅₀s from results depicted in A).

FIG. 18: Correlation between i) cytotoxic potency, ii) influence of pH on the Ab/IGF-1R binding, iii) effect of Abs on the IGF-1-induced phosphorylation of IGF-1R and iv) antibody clustering.

FIGS. 19A to 19D: Binding characteristic of the first humanized form of the c208F2 Mab. Binding properties of the hz208F2 VH3/VL3 mAb was evaluated on the human cell line MCF-7 (FIG. 19A), on the monkey cell line COS-7 (FIG. 19B) and on the transfected murine cell line expressing the human insulin receptor (FIG. 19C). The binding of both the murine and the chimeric 208F2 mAbs was evaluated in parallel. The anti-hIR antibody clone GRO5 was used to verify the expression of the hIR on the transfected cell line (FIG. 19D).

FIGS. 20A to 20D: ELISA validation of the AF305-NA polyclonal antibody that has been used for IHC assays. FIG. 20A: Binding to hIGF-1R, FIG. 20B: Binding to human recombinant IR. No recognition of hIR EDC and of cellular IR expressed by transfected cells (FIG. 20D) compared to the control Ab GRO5 on these hIR transfected cells (FIG. 20C).

FIG. 21: Validation of hIGF-1R staining on FFPE sections from xenografts expressing various levels of hIGF-1R. Hs746T was introduced as a negative control.

FIGS. 22A and 22B: Evaluation of hIGF-1R expression on normal FFPE tissue sections. Placenta sections were used as a positive control for normal tissues while positive tumor xenograft tissues were introduced in each run in order to calibrate hIGF-1R expression.

FIG. 23: Evaluation of hIGF-1R expression on NSCL FFPE tissue sections. Four cases which are representative for the strong staining observed in the large panel of tissue analyzed.

FIG. 24: Evaluation of hIGF-1R expression on breast cancer FFPE tissue sections. Three cases which are representative for the strong staining observed in the tested panel of tissue analyzed.

FIG. 25: Evaluation of hIGF-1R expression on FFPE tissue sections from various tumors.

FIG. 26: Superposition of sensorgrammes obtained with a SPR based Biacore X100 device at a temperature of 25° C. with a CM5 sensor chip activated on both flowcells with around 12.000 RU of a mouse anti-TagHis monoclonal antibodies chemically grafted to the carboxymethyldextran matrix using a HBS-EP+ as the running buffer at a flow rate of 30 μl/min. Each sensorgrammes (the first one marked by triangles and the second one marked by diamonds) correspond to a complete cycle:

-   -   1—Injection during one minute of a solution of recombinant         h-IGF-1R (10 μg/ml) on the second flowcell.     -   2—For the first sensorgramme: 5 injections of running buffer         during 90 s each     -   For the second sensorgramme: five injections in the growing         range of concentrations of the anti-IGF-1R c208F2 antibody         solutions during 90 s each.     -   3—A delay of 300 s for the determination of the dissociation         kinetic rates.     -   4—A regeneration of the surface by an injection during 45 s of a         10 mM Glycine, HCl pH 1.5 buffer.

FIG. 27: The sensorgramme corresponding to the subtraction of the blank sensorgramme (5 injections of HBS-EP+) to the sensorgramme obtained with the growing range of concentrations of the anti-IGF-1R c208F2 solutions is presented in grey. The theoretical sensorgramme corresponding to the 1:1 model with the following parameters: k_(on)=(1.206±0.036)×10⁶ M⁻¹·s⁻¹, k_(off)=(7.81±0.18)×10⁻⁵ s⁻¹, Rmax=307.6±0.3 RU is presented by a thin black line. The calculated concentrations of c208F2 are reported on the graph: only the highest concentration (24 nM) is considered as a constant).

FIG. 28: The dissociation constants correspond to the mean of the four experiments run for each antibody and correspond to the ratio: k_(off)/k_(on)×10¹² to be express in the pM unit. The error bars correspond to the standard error (n=4).

FIG. 29: The half-lives correspond to the mean of the four experiments run for each antibody and correspond to the ratio: Ln(2)/k_(off)/3600 to be express in the h unit. The error bars correspond to the standard error (n=4).

FIG. 30: Superposition of two sensorgrams corresponding to two cycle of an experiment running on a Biacore X100 device at a flow rate of 30 μl/min and at 25° C.

The first step of the cycle correspond the injection of a solution of c208F2 antibody at the concentration of 10 μg/ml during 60 s on the second flowcell of a CM5 sensor chip activated by the grafting of more than 10,500 RU of a mouse anti-human IgG Fc monoclonal antibody chemically linked to the carboxymethyldextran matrix by its amine functions. The second step correspond to the injection of the extracellular domain of either h-IGF-1R (plain diamonds) or m-IGF-1R (empty diamonds) solutions of crude cell medium culture supernatants during 120 s with a delay of 120 s. The double headed arrows indicate the positions of measure of the antibody capture level and the IGF-1R binding level used in this study.

FIG. 31: Histograms representing the ratio between IGF-1R binding level obtained for each chimerical h/m IGF-1R constructs and the level of c208F2 captured on second flowcell of the sensorchip during the corresponding cycle.

FIGS. 32A and B: Histograms representing the EC50 of hz208F2 H076/L024 for pH 5 to pH 8, Acidic pH decreases binding capacity of the humanized IGF-1R antibodies hz208F2 H076/L024 (A) and hz208F2 (H077/L018 (B).

FIG. 33: Binding of Hz208F2 (10 μg/ml) on either 170 RU of the wild-type of a soluble version of the h-IGF1R (black diamond) or on 120 RU of the mutant C29 (Asp491>Ala) of this receptor. Each receptor is captured by their C-terminal 66His Tag on a CM5 sensor chip. The experiment was run with a Biacore X100 device at 25° C. at a flow rate of 30 μl/min using the classical HBS-EP+ as the running buffer.

EXAMPLES

All hybridomas mentioned in the present invention have been deposited at the CNCM (Institut Pasteur, France) and are identified in the following table 7.

TABLE 7 Hybridoma name CNCM ref. Filing date 101H8 I-4733 24 Apr. 2013 201F1 I-4769 26 Jun. 2013 208F2 I-4757 30 May 2013 212A11 I-4773 26 Jun. 2013 214F8 I-4775 26 Jun. 2013 219D6 I-4736 24 Apr. 2013 213B10 I-4774 26 Jun. 2013 102H8 I-4767 26 Jun. 2013 110G9 I-4768 26 Jun. 2013 415A8 I-4778 26 Jun. 2013 410G4 I-4777 26 Jun. 2013 414E1 I-4738 24 Apr. 2013 433H9 I-4780 26 Jun. 2013 105G2 I-4735 24 Apr. 2013 832E5 I-4765 30 May 2013

Example 1: Generation of IGF-1R Antibodies

To generate murine monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) against human extracellular domain (ECD) of the human IGF-1 receptor (hIGF-1R), 5 BALB/c mice were immunized 3-times s.c. with 10 μs of the rhIGF-1R protein (R&D Systems, Cat No 391-GR). As an alternative, three additional immunizations with 10 μg of the murine extracellular domain (ECD) of IGF-1R (R&D Systems, Cat No 6630-GR/Fc) were performed on some animals. The first immunization was done in presence of Complete Freund Adjuvant (Sigma, St Louis, Md., USA). Incomplete Freund adjuvant (Sigma) was added for following immunizations. Three days prior to the fusion, immunized mice were boosted with 10 μg of the rhIGF-1R protein. Then splenocytes and lymphocytes were prepared by perfusion of the spleen and by mincing of the proximal lymph nodes, respectively, harvested from 1 out of the 5 immunized mice (selected after sera titration of all mice) and fused to SP2/0-Ag14 myeloma cells (ATCC, Rockville, Md., USA). The fusion protocol is described by Kohler and Milstein (Nature, 256:495-497, 1975). Fused cells are then subjected to HAT selection. In general, for the preparation of monoclonal antibodies or their functional fragments, especially of murine origin, it is possible to refer to techniques which are described in particular in the manual “Antibodies” (Harlow and Lane, Antibodies: A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor N.Y., pp. 726, 1988). Approximately 10 days after the fusion, colonies of hybrid cells were screened. For the primary screen, supernatants of hybridomas were evaluated for the secretion of Mabs raised against the rhIGF-1R ECD protein by FACS analysis using human breast MCF7 tumor cells (ATCC) and/or monkey COS7 cells (African green monkey kidney-SV40 transformed) which express monkey IGF-1R on their cell surface. More precisely, for the selection by flow cytometry, 10⁵ cells (either MCF7 or COS7) were plated in each well of a 96 well-plate in PBS containing 1% BSA and 0.01% sodium azide (FACS buffer) at 4° C. After a 2 min centrifugation at 2000 rpm, the buffer was removed and hybridoma supernatants to be tested were added. After 20 min of incubation at 4° C., cells were washed twice and an Alexa 488-conjugated goat anti-mouse antibody 1/500° diluted in FACS buffer (#A11017, Molecular Probes Inc., Eugene, USA) was added and incubated for 20 min at 4° C. After a final wash with FACS buffer, cells were analyzed by FACS (Facscalibur, Becton-Dickinson) after addition of propidium iodide to each tube at a final concentration of 40 μg/ml. Wells containing cells alone and cells incubated with the secondary Alexa 488-conjugated antibody were included as negative controls. Isotype controls were used in each experiment (Sigma, ref M90351MG). At least 5000 cells were assessed to calculate the mean value of fluorescence intensity (MFI).

Additionally an internalization assay was performed in order to select only internalizing antibodies. For this assay, the MCF7 tumor cell line was cultured in RMPI 1640 without phenol red with 1% L-glutamine and 10% of FACS for 3 days before experiment. Cells were then detached using trypsin and 100 μl of a cell suspension at 4.10⁵ cell/ml are plated in 96-multiwell plates in RPMI1640 without phenol red with 1% L-glutamine and 5% FBS. After a 2 min centrifugation at 2000 rpm, cells were resupended in 50 μl of hybridoma supernatant or control antibody solutions (positive and isotype controls at 1 μg/ml). After a 20 min incubation time at 4° C., cells were centrifuged 2 min at 2000 rpm and resuspended in either cold (4° C.) or warm (37° C.) complete culture medium. Cells were then incubated for 2 hours either at 37° C. or at 4° C. Then cells were washed three times with FACS buffer. An Alexa 488-labeled goat anti-mouse IgG antibody was incubated for 20 minutes and cells were washed three times before FACS analysis on propidium iodide negative cell population.

Following the FACS analysis, two parameters were determined: (i) the difference of the fluorescent signal detected on the surface of cells incubated at 4° C. with those obtained with the cells incubated at 37° C. with one hybridoma supernatant and (ii) the percentage of remaining IGF-1R on the cell surface. The percentage of remaining hIGF-1R is calculated as follows: % remaining IGF-1R=(MFI_(Ab 37° C.)/MFI_(Ab 4° C.))×100 In addition three ELISA were performed (either before or after cloning) to study the binding of antibodies on the recombinant human (hIGF-1R) and murine (mIGF-1R) proteins, and on the recombinant human Insulin Receptor (hIR) protein. Hybridoma secreting antibody showing binding on rh- and/or rm-IGF-1R and no binding on rhIR were retained. Briefly, 96-well ELISA plates (Costar 3690, Corning, N.Y., USA) were coated with 100 μl/well of either the rhIGF-1R protein (R&D Systems, cat No 391-GR) at 0.6 μg/ml or rmIGF-1R protein (R&D Systems, cat No 6630-GR/Fc) at 1 μg/ml or rhIR protein (R&D Systems, cat No 1544-IR/CF) at 1 μg/ml in PBS overnight at 4° C. The plates were then blocked with PBS containing 0.5% gelatin (#22151, Serva Electrophoresis GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany) for 2 h at 37° C. Once the saturation buffer discarded by flicking plates, 100 μl of each supernatant dilution were added to the wells (either undiluted hybridoma supernatant either supernatant serial dilutions) and incubated for 1 h at 37° C. After three washes, 100 μl horseradish peroxidase-conjugated polyclonal goat anti-mouse IgG (#115-035-164, Jackson Immuno-Research Laboratories, Inc., West Grove, Pa., USA) was added at a 1/5000 dilution in PBS containing 0.1% gelatin and 0.05% Tween 20 (w:w) for 1 h at 37° C. Then, ELISA plates were washed 3-times and the TMB (#UP664782, Uptima, Interchim, France) substrate is added. After a 10 min incubation time at room temperature, the reaction was stopped using 1 M sulfuric acid and the optical density at 450 nm is measured.

Hybridoma secreting antibody of interest were expanded and cloned by limit dilution. Once isotyped, one clone of each code was expanded and frozen. Each antibody of interest was produced in in vitro production systems named CellLine (Integra Biosciences) for further characterization.

Additional assays to address binding specificity by FACS analyses were performed on IM9 cells (human IR expressing B lymphoblasts) as well as on hIGF-1R transfected cells versus non transfected cells.

All the data corresponding to the selected antibodies were summarized in Table 8. It is interesting to notice that among the antibodies selected i) on the bases of their selectivity for hIGF-1R vs hIR and ii) on their capacity of inducing IGF-1R internalization, some are able to recognize their target both in ELISA and FACS setting while other were very good binders when studied by cytometry and very poor binders when evaluated by ELISA. m280F2, m212A11, m213B10, m214F8 and m219D6 belong to this latter group that did not well recognize the coated protein.

TABLE 8 FACS (Ab at 5 μg/ml) ELISA (SNT at 5 μg/ml) Internalisation Assay (Ab at 5 μg/ml) MFI D.O 450 nm % Δ (MFI Cos-7 hybridoma rh rm rh MFI remaining 4° C. − IM9 (monkey Tf non Tf cells name IGF-1R IGF-1R Insulin R 4° C. 37° C. rh IGF1R MFI 37° C.) (h IR⁺) IGF1R⁺) hIGF1R⁺ (h IGF1R⁻) 1 101H8 1.552 0.115 0.125 373 128 34 246 9 145 1902 10 2 102H8 1.988 0.136 0.130 360 140 39 220 10 136 2026 10 3 105G2 2.409 0.166 0.205 301 114 38 187 9 114 1673 11 4 110G9 1.989 0.133 0.153 396 126 32 270 10 146 2208 7 5 201F1 1.756 0.165 0.156 357 81 23 276 8 119 1987 15 6 208F2 0.163 0.099 0.140 355 94 27 261 4 106 2197 22 7 212A11 0.232 0.102 0.141 390 106 27 284 7 125 2187 23 8 213B10 0.399 0.127 0.110 386 115 30 271 7 122 2055 23 9 214F8 0.349 0.102 0.115 386 111 29 275 7 132 2137 20 10 219D6 0.329 0.112 0.106 349 106 30 243 7 114 2110 21 11 410G4 2.937 0.135 0.095 619 229 37 390 11 158 2260 34 12 414E1 3.009 0.099 0.093 729 188 26 540 13 204 2740 36 13 415A8 3.044 0.107 0.089 727 174 24 553 12 188 2960 32 14 433H9 3.104 0.154 0.131 617 153 25 464 13 206 2590 24 15 832E5 1.854 0.107 0.048 134 82 61 52 5  24* nd nd 15 mlgG1 0.093 0.116 0.127 9 8 94 1 5  14  24 22 *FACS realized using purified antibody

Example 2: Characterization of Anti-IGF-1R Antibodies Epitope Clustering by Mapping Experiments Using Biacore's SPR Based Technology

In order to study the diversity of the response against IGF-1R, the selected antibodies have been mapped by Biacore and a clustering of these antibodies according to competition properties has been performed.

Briefly, the epitope mapping experiments were run on a Biacore X device using a CM5 sensor chip activated by an anti-Tag His antibody (His capture kit GE Healthcare catalogue number 28-9950-56). More than 11000 RU of antibodies are chemically grafted on the carboxymethyldextan matrix using the amine kit chemistry. The experiments were carried out at 25° C. with a flow rate of 1 μl/min using the HBS-EP buffer (GE Healthcare) as both the running and sample dilution buffer.

The epitope mapping experiment followed the same scheme:

1—A solution of a soluble version of the hIGF-1R hetero-tetramere (2α chains and the extracellular domains of the 2β chains expressed with an additional c-terminal 10-His tag (R&D Systems catalog number 305-GR)) is injected at the concentration of 5 μg/ml on both flowcells during 1 minute.

2—A solution of an anti-hIGF-1R antibody (classically 50 μg/ml) to be tested is then injected only on the flowcell 1 during between 60 to 90 s in order to reach (or at least to be closed to) a saturation of the hIGF-1R binding sites.

3—A solution of a second antibody, used as a potential competitor, is either injected in the same conditions on both flowcells or only on the second flowcell.

4—Eventually, a solution of a third antibody may be injected in the same conditions on both flowcells.

5—The surface is then regenerated with an injection of a 10 mM Glycine, HCl pH 1.5 buffer during 30 s.

This kind of experiment shows clearly if two antibodies may bind simultaneously on the same molecule of hIGF-1R demonstrating that the binding regions (epitopes) of each antibody are distant enough to allow this. In contrast, if the binding of an antibody to hIGF-1R prevents the binding of a second antibody that suggested that the same epitope was recognize by both antibodies. Finally, in case of partial competition, one can suspect an overlap of the epitopes recognized by the two tested antibodies. Epitope region groups are thus defined. The complexity of the result generally increases with size of the panel of antibodies used in the experiment.

FIG. 1 describes an example of a typical cycle of an epitope mapping experiment using a SPR based Biacore X device The sensorgrams show the response (RU) as function to the time (seconds) of the flowcells 1 (black diamonds) and 2 (white diamonds). In phase 1, a solution of the antigen: a soluble recombinant hIGF-1R with two C-term 10-His Tag is injected on both flowcells of a CM5 sensorchip with an anti-His Tag mouse antibody chemically linked to the carboxymethyldextran matrix at the concentration of 5 μg/ml at a flow rate of 10 μl/min.

In phase 2, a solution of a first antibody to be tested (219D6) at the concentration of 50 μg/ml is injected on the flowcell 1. Then in phase 3, a solution of a second antibody (101H8) at the concentration of 50 μg/ml is injected on the flowcell 2, followed in phase 4, by the injection of a solution of a third antibody (201F1) at the concentration of 50 μg/ml on both flowcells. The response of this injection clearly shows that the binding of 201F1 on the IGF-1R is prevented by 101H8 but not by 219D6. Antibodies 201F1 and 219D6 clearly belong to different epitope groups. The clustering resulting to the whole analysis of the 15 selected candidates is described in FIG. 2 and demonstrated that the immunization of mice with hIGF-1R give raise of a series of antibodies displaying a good diversity. Indeed, 5 different groups of Mabs recognizing different epitopes were generated.

Example 3: Antibody Binding to the Human Native IGF-1R by FACS Analyses

The binding properties of a series of anti-IGF-1R antibodies were evaluated by FACS analyses on the human MCF-7 breast adenocarcinoma cell line (ATCC#HTB-22) using increasing antibody concentrations. For that purpose, cells (1×10⁶ cells/nil) were incubated with anti-IGF-1R antibodies for 20 min. at 4° C. in FACS buffer (PBS, 0.1% BSA, 0.01% NaN₃). They were then washed 3 times and incubated with the appropriate secondary antibody coupled with Alexa 488 for 20 additional minutes at 4° C. in the dark before being washed 3 times in FACS buffer. The binding of anti-IGF-1R antibodies was immediately performed on viable cells which were identified using propidium iodide (that stains dead cells). The maximum of signal intensity obtained with each antibody was designed as B_(max) and expressed in mean of fluorescence intensity (MFI). The EC₅₀ of binding expressed in molarity (M) was calculated using a nonlinear regression analysis (GraphPad Prims 4.0).

The titration curve of each murine or chimeric Ab demonstrated that all generated antibodies are capable of recognizing the native IGF-1R form with a typical saturation profile (FIG. 3A). In order to rank antibodies and to compare the binding properties of both murine and chimeric Abs, the binding EC₅₀ of each compound was determined using a non linear regression analysis. The comparison of the EC₅₀ of each murine Ab with its corresponding chimeric form showed that the 2 forms displayed the same binding properties demonstrating that the Ab chimerization did not affect IGF-1R recognition (FIG. 3B). EC₅₀s ranged between 1.2×10⁻⁸ and 4.4×10⁻¹⁰. Antibodies belonging to Group 2 and c102H8 belonging to group 3a showed the better EC₅₀. Regarding to B_(max) analyses (FIG. 3C), three Abs (414E1 (G3b), 105G2 (G4) and 832E5 (G5) had a lower B_(max) compared to the other one. EC₅₀ and B_(max) values were summarized in Table 9.

TABLE 9 Group Ac B_(max) EC₅₀(M) G1 c101H8 905 2.8E−09 G3a c102H8 951 8.5E−10 G4 c105G2 805 4.9E−09 G3a c110G9 992 1.4E−09 G1 c201F1 936 1.5E−08 G2 c208F2 981 6.7E−10 G2 c212A11 991 6.7E−10 G2 c214F8 1069 5.0E−10 G2 c219D6 993 4.7E−10 G2 c213B10 1103 4.4E−10 G3b c410G4 1020 2.6E−09 G3b c414E1 795 6.0E−09 G3a c415A8 1142 1.6E−09 G3b c433H9 1032 1.7E−09 G5 c832E5 691 1.2E−08

Example 4: Confirmation of Antibody Specificity by Using Either IGF-1R or IR Transfected Cells or IM9 Cells that Naturally Express Significant Levels of IR

In order to confirm the specificity of the generated antibodies for hIGF-1R versus hIR, stable transfectants expressing either hIGF-1R or hIR were evaluated by FACS analyses. Briefly, increasing concentrations of chimeric mAbs were incubated with cells for 20 min at 4° C. in FACS buffer (PBS, 0.1% BSA, 0.01% NaN₃). Cells were then washed 3 times and incubated with the appropriate secondary antibody coupled with Alexa 488 before being incubated for 20 additional minutes at 4° C. in the dark and then washed 3 times in FACS buffer. The binding of anti-IGF-1R antibodies was immediately performed on viable cells which were identified using propidium iodide (that stains dead cells). The binding EC₅₀ expressed in molarity (M) was calculated using a nonlinear regression analysis (GraphPad Prims 4.0).

Titration curves obtained on the hIGF-1R transfected cell line (FIG. 4A) versus untransfected cells (FIG. 4B) confirmed the binding specificity of chimeric Abs for the human IGF-1R. EC₅₀ and B_(max) values were summarized in Table 10. In this assay antibodies from G2 and G3a groups showed the best EC_(50s).

TABLE 10 Group Ac B_(max) EC₅₀ (M) G1 c101H8 2107 1.2E−09 G1 c201F1 2500 1.1E−08 G2 c208F2 2008 3.2E−10 G2 c212A11 2513 4.4E−10 G2 c214F8 2094 2.7E−10 G2 c219D6 2521 5.5E−10 G2 c213B10 2029 3.3E−10 G3a c102H8 2594 5.4E−10 G3a c110G9 2189 5.2E−10 G3a c415A8 2728 7.0E−10 G3b c410G4 1667 7.1E−10 G3b c414E1 2265 1.9E−09 G3b c433H9 2165 6.5E−10 G4 c105G2 2396 1.7E−09 G5 c832E5 1998 7.3E−09

In order to verify the absence of binding of both murine and chimeric antibodies on hIR, a stable cell line expressing the human IR was used. The recognition of human cell surface hIR by both murine and chimeric Ab was performed by FACS analyses. Increasing concentrations of either the murine or the chimeric mAbs were incubated on the hIR⁺ transfected cell line for 20 minutes at 4° C. in FACS buffer (PBS, 0.1% BSA, 0.01% NaN₃). Cells were then washed 3 times and incubated with the appropriate secondary antibody coupled with Alexa 488 before being incubated for 20 additional minutes at 4° C. in the dark and then washed 3 times in FACS buffer. The binding of anti-IGF-1R antibodies was immediately performed on viable cells which were identified using propidium iodide (that stains dead cells). The binding EC₅₀ expressed in molarity (M) was calculated using a nonlinear regression analysis (GraphPad Prims 4.0). A commercial specific anti-IGF-1R antibody, clone GR11L and the anti-hIR antibody clone GRO5 were used as positive controls. The c9G4 was introduced as an irrelevant antibody (isotype control).

The high level of expression of hIR on cell surface of the transfected cells was confirmed using the commercial anti-hIR antibody GRO5. Even using high concentrations of either the murine (FIG. 5A) or the chimeric (FIG. 5B) anti-hIGF-1R Abs, no binding on cell surface of hIR⁺ transfected cells was observed. These results demonstrated that neither murine nor chimeric anti-hIGF-1R Abs did recognized the hIR.

This specificity of recognition of hIGF-1R versus IR has also been demonstrated using IM9 cells, a B-lymphoma cell line that express hIR (FIG. 6). For this FACS analysis, the protocol was the same as the one described previously and murine anti-IGF-1R antibodies were used in order to prevent the cross reactivity of the secondary anti-human Ab (IM9 cells express human Ig on their cell surface). Results presented in FIG. 6 demonstrated once again that the expected signal was observed using the GRO5 anti-hIR antibody while none of the murine antibody evaluated displayed any significant binding signal on this cell line.

Example 5: Antibody Binding to the Monkey Native IGF-1R by FACS and Biacore Analyses

One of the first pre-requisite for regulatory toxicology studies is to identify a relevant animal specie to evaluate the selected compound. As the series of antibodies described herein is not able to recognize murine IGF-1R, the most likely specie for toxicological evaluation is the non human primate (NHP).

In order to evaluate the binding of anti-IGF-1R antibodies on monkey IGF-1R, the binding of both murine and chimeric anti-hIGF-1R antibodies was evaluated by FACS analyses on COS-7 cell line using increasing antibody concentrations. Cells (1×10⁶ cells/ml) were incubated with anti-IGF-1R antibodies for 20 minutes at 4° C. in FACS buffer (PBS, 0.1% BSA, 0.01% NaN₃). Then, cells were washed 3 times and incubated with the appropriate secondary antibody coupled with Alexa 488 before being incubated for 20 additional minutes at 4° C. in the dark and finally washed 3 times in FACS buffer. The binding of anti-IGF-1R antibodies was immediately evaluated on viable cells identified using propidium iodide (that stains dead cells). The binding EC₅₀ expressed in molarity (M) was calculated using a nonlinear regression analysis (GraphPad Prims 4.0).

The titration curves obtained on the COS-7 monkey cell line showed that, excepted for the 832E5 mAb, all the anti-hIGF-1R Abs recognized specifically the IGF-1R expressed on the surface of the monkey cell line (FIG. 7A). Determination of the EC₅₀ for each murine and chimeric Abs showed that the 2 forms compared well regarding to their binding properties on monkey IGF-1R (FIG. 7B). Those results showed that all the generated anti-hIGF-1R except the mAb 832E5 recognized the monkey IGF-1R.

A comparison of binding EC₅₀ on COS-7 cells versus transfected IGF-1R cells was performed in order to verify the magnitude of chimeric antibody recognition on human versus monkey IGF-1R. Results shown in FIG. 7B demonstrated a similar recognition of human and monkey IGF-1Rs by all antibodies except the 832E5 mAb.

In order to confirm the recognition on another type of monkey, cells were transfected with the IGF-1R form Cynomolgus monkey to produce soluble monkey IGF-1R ECD and Biacore experiments were performed with one of the chimeric antibodies (c208F2) in order to compare its binding properties either the hIGF-1R or the Cynomolgus IGF-1R.

The recognition experiments were run on a Biacore X100 device using a CM5 sensor chip activated by an anti-Tag His antibody (His capture kit GE Healthcare catalogue number 28-9950-56). More than 11000 RU of antibodies are chemically grafted on the carboxymethyldextan matrix using the amine kit chemistry. The experiments were carried out at 25° C. with a flow rate of 30 μl/min using the HBS-EP buffer (GE Healthcare) as the running and sample dilution buffer. The single cycle kinetic scheme was used to defined the kinetic parameters of the binding of the chimeric form of the 208F2 anti-IGF-1R antibody (c208F2) on hIGF-1R compared to Macaca IGF-1R.

A solution of a soluble recombinant version of the IGF-1R hetero-tetramere composed of 2β chains and the extracellular domains of 2a chains expressed with an additional C-terminal 10-His tag, based either on the sequence of the human (R&D Systems catalogue number 305-GR-50) or of the one of cynomolgus (produced in house) was injected 1 minute on the second flowcell at a dilution defined to capture around 160 RU of antigen. Solution of a second antibody is either injected in the same conditions on both flowcells or only on the second flowcell. After the capture phase, either the running buffer was injected 5 times (90 s each injection) or a growing range of 5 concentrations of c208F2 were injected (90 s each injection) on both flowcells. At the end of the fifth injection the running buffer was passed in order to define the dissociation rate. The surface was then regenerated with an injection of a 10 mM Glycine, HCl pH 1.5 buffer during 30 s.

The computed signal corresponds to the difference between the response of the flowcell 2 (with captured IGF-1R) and the response of the flowcell 1 (without any IGF-1R molecules) (FIG. 8).

For each IGF-1R molecule (human or cyno), the signal due to the injections of the growing range of concentrations of c208F2 was corrected by subtraction of the signal obtained with the 5 injections of the buffer (double reference). The resulting sensorgrams were analysed using the Biaevaluation software with a 1:1 model. The kinetic rates are evaluated either independently (2 kinetics rates of the binding of c208F2 on each IGF-1R) or commonly (the same kinetic rates of the binding of c208F2 on the human and the cynomolgus IGF-1R). The quality of the fitting was assessed by a Chi2/Rmax ratio lower than 0.05 RU.

The kinetics rates of the binding (see Table 11) defined separately for each IGF-1R are close and a fitting of both sensorgrams with the same kinetic rates is of good quality. The c208F2 antibody recognizes as well the recombinant human and cynomolgus IGF-1Rs with a dissociation constant (KD) about 0.2 nM. The affinities defined in this study correspond to the functional affinities (or avidities) of the antibodies for a level of captured human and cynomolgus IGF-1R around 160RU.

TABLE 11 IGF1R kon [1/M.s] koff [1/s] Kd [nM] Chi2/Rmax human 1.52E+06 3.40E−04 0.23 0.045 cynomogus 1.85E+06 3.10E−04 0.17 0.032 Hum. & Cyno. 1.52E+06 3.33E−04 0.22 0.039

Example 6: Intrinsic Effect of Generated Antibodies on IGF-1R Phosphorylation

It is well known that antibodies could induce an agonistic effect when they bind to tyrosine kinase receptors. As we would not like to select such agonist antibodies, the evaluation of hIGF-1R phosphorylation was studied using the chimeric antibodies.

For that purpose, MCF-7 cells were incubated in serum-free medium overnight. Then, either IGF-1 (100 nM) or Abs to be tested were added (10 μg/ml) for 10 minutes at 37° C. Medium was discarded and cells were scraped in a lysis buffer (pH 7.5) containing 10 mM Tris HCl buffer (pH 7.5), 15% NaCl (1M), 10% detergent mix (10 mM Tris-HCl, 10% Igepal lysis buffer) (Sigma Chemical Co.), 5% sodium deoxycholate (Sigma Chemical Co.), 1 protease inhibitor cocktail complete TM tablet (Roche), 1% phosphatase inhibitor Cocktail Set II (Calbiochem), for 90 min at 4° C. The lysates were clarified by centrifugation at 4° C., heated for 5 min at 100° C. and kept at −20° C. or directly loaded on 4-12% SDS-PAGE gels. Incubation of the primary antibody was performed for 2 hr at room temperature and then incubation with HRP-linked secondary antibodies was done for 1 hr at room temperature. Membranes were washed in TBST prior to visualization of proteins with ECL. Blots were quantified using Image J software. Phospho-protein values were normalized with GAPDH. Phosphorylation of hIGF-1R in response to IGF-1 was considered as 100% of stimulation. The effect of anti-hIGF-1R Abs on the phosphorylation of hIGF-1R was determined as % of phosphorylation induced by IGF-1.

The results described in FIG. 9 represent the mean of the % of pIGF-1R in response to the chimeric anti-IGF-1R Abs of 3 independent experiments+/−S.D. compared to IGF-1. As illustrated no significant or minor (<20%) phosphorylation of hIGF-1R was detected when MCF-7 cells were incubated with 10 μg of anti-IGF-1R Abs.

Example 7: Inhibition of IGF-1R Phosphorylation in Response to IGF-1 by Murine Anti-hIGF-1R Antibodies

In order to characterize the selected antibodies, their ability to inhibit IGF1-induced phosphorylation was studied. For that purpose, MCF-7 cells were incubated in serum-free medium overnight. Then, cells were incubated for 5 minutes with murine anti-hIGF-1R Abs before addition of IGF-1 for 2 minutes at 37° C. Medium was discarded and cells were scraped in a lysis buffer (pH 7.5) containing 10 mM Tris HCl buffer (pH 7.5), 15% NaCl (1M), 10% detergent mix (10 mM Tris-HCl, 10% Igepal lysis buffer) (Sigma Chemical Co.), 5% sodium deoxycholate (Sigma Chemical Co.), 1 protease inhibitor cocktail complete TM tablet (Roche), 1% phosphatase inhibitor Cocktail Set II (Calbiochem), for 90 min at 4° C. The lysates were clarified by centrifugation at 4° C., heated for 5 min at 100° C. and kept at −20° C. or directly loaded on 4-12% SDS-PAGE gels. Incubation of the primary antibody was performed for 2 hr at room temperature and then incubation with HRP-linked secondary antibodies was performed for 1 hr at room temperature. Membranes were washed in TBST prior to visualization of proteins with ECL. Blots were quantified using Image J software. Phospho-protein values were normalized with GAPDH. Phosphorylation of hIGF-1R in response to IGF-1 was considered as 100% of stimulation. The effect of anti-hIGF-1R Abs on the phosphorylation of hIGF-1R was determined as % of phosphorylation induced by IGF-1.

Addition of either m105G2, m101H8 or m9G4, an irrelevant murine antibody, did not inhibit hIGF-1R phosphorylation in response to IGF-1 (FIG. 10). Addition of m201F1 decreased moderately hIGF-1R phosphorylation in response to IGF-1 (˜40% of decrease). All other anti-IGF-1R Abs inhibited strongly hIGF-1R phosphorylation in response to IGF-1 (decrease >80%). The best inhibitors of IGF1-induced phosphorylation of hIGF-1R are the m208F2, m212A11 and m214F8 Mabs.

Example 8: Study of IGF-1R Internalization after Binding of the Generated Anti-IGF-1R Antibodies by FACS Analyses

MCF-7 cells were incubated with 10 μg/ml of chimeric antibodies at 4° C. for 20 min. Then, cells were washed and incubated at 4° C. or 37° C. for 4 h. The quantity of cell-surface bound antibody was determined using a secondary antibody on a FacsCalibur Flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson). The ΔMFI defined as the difference between MFI measured at 4° C. and MFI measured at 37° C. after a 4 hour incubation time corresponded to the quantity of internalized Ab. The ΔMFI was presented in FIGS. 11A and 11B and Table 12. The percentage of internalization at 10 μg/ml of Ab were calculated as followed 100*(MFI at 4° C.−MFI at 37° C.)/MFI at 4° C. and presented in Table 11. The maximum of ΔMFI calculated for each chimeric antibody (FIGS. 11A and 11B) showed no correlation between the group and the maximum of internalisation.

TABLE 12 % Group Abs Internalization ΔMFI EC₅₀ G1 c101H8 75 254 4.2E−09 G1 c201F1 75 222 8.4E−08 G2 c208F2 83 288 1.8E−10 G2 c212A11 80 322 2.7E−10 G2 c214F8 87 403 2.2E−10 G2 c219D6 80 353 4.4E−10 G2 c213B10 85 369 2.3E−10 G3a c102H8 71 262 7.9E−10 G3a c110G9 79 309 1.2E−09 G3a c415A8 78 327 1.2E−09 G3b c410G4 82 321 3.7E−09 G3b c414E1 68 229 3.1E−09 G3b c433H9 79 323 1.1E−09 G4 c105G2 81 260 7.2E−09 G5 c832E5 40 92 2.0E−08

In order to determine whether antibodies that also recognized the monkey IGF-1R were able to internalize this receptor, the same internalization experiment was performed. Results summarized in Table 13 demonstrated that all tested antibodies were able to mediate monkey IGF-1R internalization.

TABLE 13 Murine Abs Chimeric Abs Group Abs ΔMFI % internalisation ΔMFI % internalisation G1 101H8 73 73 85 73 G1 201F1 66 65 76 60 G2 208F2 53 74 52 67 G2 212A11 83 73 98 75 G2 214F8 76 71 98 72 G2 219D6 80 71 102 74 G2 213B10 84 74 101 73 G3a 102H8 60 55 74 54 G3a 110G9 69 59 93 61 G3a 415A8 89 65 121 68 G3b 410G4 51 49 87 58 G3b 414E1 93 67 59 54 G3b 433H9 80 61 98 63 G4 105G2 68 67 94 72

The kinetic of cell surface bound antibody decrease was further evaluated. For that purpose, MCF-7 cells were seeded in 96-well plates and incubated with 10 μg/ml of murine for 20 min at 4° C. Cells were then washed to remove unbound antibody and in media at 37° C. for 10, 20, 30, 60 or 120 min. At each time point, cells were centrifuged and then surface labelled on ice with a secondary anti-mouse IgG-Alexa488 to determine the amount of antibody remaining on the cell surface. The fluorescence intensity for each murine Ab and for each time point was normalized by the signal at 4° C. (% remaining IGF-1R) and fit to an exponential decay to determine the half life (t½). t½ was considered as the time needed to obtain a decrease of 50% of the signal measured at 4° C. As illustrated in FIGS. 12A and 12B, the surface level of all murine Abs dropped rapidly over the first 30 min and the decrease was almost maximum after 60 min of incubation (FIG. 12A). The calculated half life was comprised between 10 to 18 min regarding to the murine Ab (FIG. 12B). There was no correlation between the antibody surface decay and the group of Abs.

In order to validate that the decrease of the cell surface signal was due to Ab internalization and not due to receptor shedding, cells were incubated with murine Abs for 0, 30 and 60 min a 37° C. (FIG. 13). Cells were then fixed and permeabilized or not in order to determine cell surface bound antibody (w/o permeabilization) and total antibody signal corresponding to cell-surface bound+internalized Ab (with permeabilization). The quantity of internalized Ab (cytoplasmic) was determined as follow: MFI after permabilization−MFI w/o permeabilization. This experiment showed that the decrease of cell-surface bound Ab was due to an increase of cytoplasmic Abs demonstrating that Abs were internalized (FIG. 13). In addition, the degradation of the Abs started after 1 h of incubation as indicated by the decrease of the signal after permeabilization (Total).

Example 9: Study of IGF-1R Internalization after Binding of the Generated Anti-IGF-1R Antibodies by Confocal Analyses

To further confirm antibodies internalization, confocal microscopy was done to assess the subcellular distribution of antibodies following cellular trafficking. Cells were incubated with anti-hIGF-1R Abs 37° C., fixed and permeabilized. Therefore, cells were stained using a secondary antibody Alexa-488 and with rabbit anti-1Lamp-1 antibody that was revealed using a secondary anti-Rabbit IgG Alexa 555. Before incubation at 37° C., the murine 208F2 Ab was localized on the membrane of MCF-7 cells (FIG. 14A) and no colocalization with the lysosome marker, lamp-1 was noted using the colocalization highliter plug-in of the ImageJ software. The cell surface bound antibody decreased dramatically after 15 min of incubation. Concomitantly to the decrease of the cell surface bound antibody, intracellular antibody was detected into vesicles. Rare colocalization with lamp-1 could be observed. After 30 min of incubation, the cell surface bound antibody was hardly detected. However, the colocalization of the Ab into lysosome increased. After 1 h of incubation, the intracellular Ab staining decreased as well as the number of colocalization with lamp-1. This kinetic of cell surface bound antibody and its intracellular accumulation correlated with the kinetic of antibody surface decay measure by FACS. In addition, as already described with FACS studies, the degradation of murine Abs started after 1 h of incubation by confocal microscopy.

The internalization of all other anti-hIGF-1R murine antibodies and their colocalization with Lamp-1 was also assessed (FIGS. 14B to 14D).

Example 10: Inhibition of Abs Degradation Using Lysosome Inhibitor, Bafilomycin A1

In order to confirm that antibodies reached the lysosome were they are degraded, cells were treated or not with bafilomycine A1, a potent inhibitor of lysosome functions. Cells were then incubated with 10 μg/ml of Ab to be tested at 4° C., washed and incubated for 2 h at 37° C. The internalized Ab was detected after cell permeabilisation using a secondary anti-mouse IgG-Alexa 488 Ab. Addition of bafilomycine A1 prevented the degradation of intracellular Ab (FIG. 15) indicating that Abs were effectively internalized and degraded into lysosomes.

Example 11: Effect of pH on Antibody-IGF-1R Binding and Correlation with Cytotoxicity Potency

As antibodies were selected on the bases of their internalizing potential and shown above to co-localize with early endosomes before entering into the lysosomal compartment, an interesting approach consisted in selecting antibodies for which the stability of the Ab-hIGF-1R binding was modulated regarding to pH environment and preferentially antibodies that dissociated preferentially from IGF-1R when the pH environment became acid. Indeed, the primary difference between early endosomes and lysosomes is their luminal pH: in the endosome compartment the pH is approximately 6 while in the lysosomal compartment the pH is about 4.5.

It is well known that once internalized after ligand binding (IGF1), hIGF-1R returns back to the cell surface through a recycling pathway.

Without being linked by a theory, a hypothesis herein described is that antibodies more prone to be released from their target early at acidic pH will probably favour target recycling to the membrane and consequently could be considered as better candidates for immunoconjugate approaches. In order to investigate whether some of our antibodies display such a property and to correlate this property to cytotoxic activity, the binding of the murine anti-hIGF-1R Mabs on MCF-7 cell line was done in buffers at different pH. Increasing concentration of murine mAbs were incubated on MCF-7 cell line for 20 min at 4° C. in different pH ranging from 5 to 8. Cells were then washed 3 times and incubated with the appropriate secondary antibody coupled with Alexa 488 in FACS buffer. Cells were incubated for 20 additional minutes at 4° C. in the dark and then washed 3 times in FACS buffer. The binding of anti-hIGF-1R antibodies was immediately performed on viable cells which were identified using propidium iodide that stained dead cells. The binding EC₅₀ expressed in molarity (M) was calculated using a nonlinear regression analysis (GraphPad Prims 4.0).

The EC₅₀ of the anti-hIGF-1R belonging to the epitope cluster group 3B was not significantly affected by the pH (FIG. 16). The binding capacity of the anti-hIGF-1R Abs belonging to the epitope cluster group 3a was often enhanced at acidic pH. On the contrary, the binding capacity of anti-hIGF-1R Abs belonging to the epitope cluster groups 1, 2 and 4 was decreased at acidic pH.

In the aim of determining if acidic pH has a positive impact on cytotoxicity induced by an immunoconjugate, the commercially available Fab-ZAP human assay (ATS BIO) was used. Briefly, MCF7 cells were seeded at 2000 cells/well on 96 well plates and left overnight to adhere. The day after, cells were treated with 0.45 μg/mL of Fab-ZAP and increasing concentrations of chimeric anti-IGF-1R Abs. c9G4 monoclonal antibody which does not bind cell surface was used as a negative control. On day 6, cell viability was measured using CellTiter Glo Luminesence Cell Viability assay from Promega (Madison, Wi). As illustrated in FIG. 17A, the anti-IGF-1R Abs of groups 4 and 5 did not induced induced any cytotoxicity on MCF-7, whereas moderate cytotoxicity (groups 1, 3a and 3b) to high cytotoxicity (group 2) was measured with the other groups. In the FIG. 17B, determination of the IC₅₀ confirmed that the group 2 have the highest cytotoxic potency suggesting that these antibodies will be the most suitable for an ADC (Antibody Drug Conjugate) or an ATC approach.

The results summarized in FIG. 17 showed that among the 15 chimeric mabs evaluated the best cytotoxic effect was reached with c208F2, c219D5, c212A11, c213B10 and c214F8 that all belong to group 2. However other antibodies from group 1 and 4 also that also display a sensitivity to acidic pH for IGF-1R binding, were not clustered as the best candidates for cytotoxicity suggesting that this property could be required but not sufficient to explain the particular properties of antibodies from the group 2. In order to better understand the particular characteristics of this set of antibodies correlations studies were performed regarding to the data available for all the generated antibodies. The results of this analysis suggested that both inhibition of phosphorylation and decrease capacity of binding to hIGF-1R in an acidic pH environment are required to get the best cytotoxic activity (FIG. 18). Indeed 101H8 (G1), 201F1 (G1) and 105G2 (G4) whose binding was decreased in acidic pH environment, but that were poor phosphorylation inhibitors, showed low cytotoxic activities. On the other hand, 102H8 (G3a), 110G9 (G3a), 415A8 (G3a), 410G4 (G3b), 414E1 (G3b) and 433H9 (G3b) were potent inhibitors of IGF1-induced phosphorylation but not sensitive to pH variation or whose binding was enhanced at acidic pH, demonstrated only moderate cytotoxic activities in the Fab-ZAP human assay.

The binding of the humanized anti-IGF-1R Mabs on MCF-7 cell line was done in buffers at different pH. Increasing concentrations of humanized mAbs were incubated on MCF-7 cell line for 20 min at 4° C. in different pH ranging from 5 to 8. Cells were then washed 3 times and incubated with the appropriate secondary antibody coupled with Alexa 488 in FACS buffer. Cells were incubated for 20 additional minutes at 4° C. in the dark and then washed 3 times in FACS buffer. The binding of anti-IGF-1R antibodies was immediately performed on viable cells which were identified using propidium iodide that stained dead cells. The binding EC₅₀ expressed in molarity (M) was calculated using a nonlinear regression analysis (GraphPad Prims 4.0). The humanized anti-IGF-1R-antibodies showed a lower binding capacity at acidic pH as illustrated in FIGS. 32A and 32B.

Example 12: Evaluation of the Humanized Forms of the 208F2 Mab

12.1 Evaluation of the Binding and Internalization of the First Humanized Form hz208F2 VH3/VL3 (Also Referred as hz208F2 H026/L024)

The binding of the first humanized form of the c208F2 mAb was evaluated on MCF-7, COS-7 and NIH 3T3 IR⁺ cell lines. Increasing concentrations of the m208F2, the c208F2 or the hz208F2 VH3VL3 were added on each cell line for 20 min. at 4° C. Cells were then washed and the binding of the tested mAb was revealed using the corresponding secondary antibody. In order to validate the expression of the human IR on the transfected cell line, the commercial anti-hIR antibody clone GRO5 was used and its recognition profile exemplified on (FIG. 19D).

Comparison of the humanized form with either murin or chimeric ones on MCF-7 (FIG. 19A) or monkey COS-7 (FIG. 19B) cells showed close profiles for the 3 tested forms. The humanisation process did not modify the specificity of recognition of the antibody that is perfectly comparable to the murin and chimeric forms regarding to the absence of cross reactivity on the human insulin receptor (FIG. 19C).

The calculated EC_(50s) of the first humanized form of c208F2 on the human cell line MCF-7 and the monkey cell line COS-7 were similar to the one determined with either the murine or the chimeric form of the 208F2.

The capacity of the mAb hz208F2 VH3/VL3 to be internalized was assessed by flow cytometry. MCF-7 cells were incubated with 10 μg/ml of antibodies at 4° C. for 20 min. Then, cells were washed and incubated at 4° C. or 37° C. for 4 h. The quantity of cell-surface bound antibody was determined using a secondary antibody. The ΔMFI defined as the difference between MFI measured at 4° C. and MFI measured at 37° C. after a 4 hour incubation time corresponded to the quantity of internalized Ab. The ΔMFI was presented in Table 14a. The percentage of internalization at 10 μg/ml of Ab were calculated as followed 100*(MFI at 4° C.−MFI at 37° C.)/MFI at 4° C. and presented in Table 14a. Therefore, the humanized hz208F2 VH3/VL3 had similar binding and internalization properties as the one measured with the corresponding murine and chimeric 208F2 antibodies.

TABLE 14a ΔMFI % internalization m208F2 294 88 c208F2 278 82 Hz208F2 VH3/VL3 344 87

12.2 Evaluation of the Binding of Subsequent hz208F2 Humanized Forms

The mAb 208F2 was humanized and the binding properties of sixteen humanized variants (including the first form described in 12.1) were evaluated. The binding properties of the humanized variants were evaluated by FACS analyses on the human MCF-7 breast adenocarcinoma cell line and the monkey cell line Cos-7 using increasing antibody concentrations. For that purpose, cells (1×10⁶ cells/ml) were incubated with anti-IGF-1R humanized antibodies for 20 min. at 4° C. in FACS buffer (PBS, 0.1% BSA, 0.01% NaN3). They were then washed 3 times and incubated with the appropriate secondary antibody coupled with Alexa 488 for 20 additional minutes at 4° C. in the dark before being washed 3 times in FACS buffer. The binding of anti-IGF-1R antibodies was immediately performed on viable cells which were identified using propidium iodide (that stains dead cells). The EC₅₀ of binding expressed in molarity (M) was calculated using a nonlinear regression analysis (GraphPad Prims 4.0).

The EC₅₀ of humanized variants showed that all the humanized variants displayed the equivalent binding properties on both human and monkey cell lines.

EC₅₀ of humanized antibodies were summarized in Table 14b.

TABLE 14b EC50 (M) MCF-7 Cos-7 Humanized hz208F2 H026/L024 7.09E−10  5.1E−10 variants hz208F2 H037/L018 4.9E−10 7.4E−10 hz208F2 H047/L018 7.7E−10 9.2E−10 hz208F2 H049/L018 4.9E−10 6.9E−10 hz208F2 H051/L018 5.7E−10 7.2E−10 hz208F2 H052/L018 8.4E−10 9.9E−10 hz208F2 H057/L018 5.8E−10 8.3E−10 hz208F2 H068/L018 1.1E−09 1.2E−09 hz208F2 H070/L018 4.6E−10 7.3E−10 hz208F2 H071/L018 5.5E−10 1.1E−09 hz208F2 H076/L018 6.5E−10 1.1E−09 hz208F2 H077/L018 7.7E−10 1.1E−09 hz208F2 H037/L021 4.8E−10 8.2E−10 hz208F2 H049/L021 6.6E−10 8.5E−10 hz208F2 H052/L021 5.7E−10 1.2E−09 hz208F2 H076/L021 5.8E−10 1.1E−09

12.3 Evaluation of the Internalization of Another hz208F2 Humanized Form

MCF-7 cells were incubated with 10 μg/ml of humanized antibodies at 4° C. for 20 min. Then, cells were washed and incubated at 4° C. or 37° C. for 4 h. The quantity of cell-surface bound antibody was determined using a secondary antibody on a FacsCalibur Flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson). The ΔMFI defined as the difference between MFI measured at 4° C. and MFI measured at 37° C. after a 4 hour incubation time corresponded to the quantity of internalized Ab. The ΔMFI was presented in Table 14c. The percentage of internalization at 10 μg/ml of Ab was calculated as followed 100*(MFI at 4° C.−MFI at 37° C.)/MFI at 4° C. The humanized antibody hz208F2 H077/L018 is able to induce a significant internalization of IGF-1R.

TABLE 14c % ΔMFI Internalization hz208F2 H077/L018 468 88

Example 13: IGF-1R as a Target for an Immunoconjugate Approach

IHC studies were set up in order to validate hIGF-1R as a target for an immunoconjugate approach. Indeed a useful target for such an approach requires a significant over expression on tumor cells compared to normal cells. Another property of an appropriate target for an immunoconjugate approach is its prevalence of overexpression on a significant percentage of the patient population in many indications.

In order to evaluate whether hIGF-1R could be considered as an appropriate target for an immunoconjugate approach, a commercially available polyclonal antibody (AF305-NA from R&D Systems) described as being specific of hIGF-1R extracellular domain (EDC) versus hIR was selected. The first step of our process was to verify the specificity of AF305-NA for hIGF-1R ECD and its absence of recognition of hIR. For that purpose, a series of ELISA tests were performed on both human IGF-1R and hIR ECD proteins using protocols already detailed above.

Results described in FIG. 20A demonstrated that the polyclonal anti-hIGF-1R antibody efficiently recognized the hIGF-1R ECD. The GR11L antibody (Calbiochem) that was used as a positive control gave the expected profile. As described by the provider, FIG. 20B showed that AF305-NA does not recognize the hIR in contrast to the anti-hIR GRO5 Mab (Calbiochem) used as a positive control in the ELISA. Likewise, a binding evaluation of the polyclonal AF305-NA on hIR⁺ transfected cells by FACS analyses confirmed that it does not recognize the cellular form of hIR (FIG. 20D) while the anti-hIR GRO5 antibody (FIG. 20C) presented the expected profile on the transfected cells demonstrating that they express a high level of hIR. As expected, the GR11L, recognizing the hIGF-1R, and introduced in the experiment as an negative control does not show any signal on hIR⁺ transfected cells (FIG. 20C).

As the AF305-NA antibody was fully validated for a hIGF-1R distribution study, an IHC protocol was set up on the Discovery Ultra autostainer Ventana. Briefly, after dewax, antigen retrivial was performed using CC1 corresponding to EDTA pH8 buffer for 32 minutes at 96° C. Primary antibody (AF305-NA) was incubated for 1 h at 37° C. After washing, polymer HRP-OMap anti-goat IgG (Ventana) was incubated for 16 minutes at 37° C. and then revealed using DAB chromogen. Finally, tissues were counterstaining using Hematoxilin. Slides were then mounted in Eukitt medium. In order to validate the INC staining, a panel of tumor tissues from xenograft was selected regarding their in vitro expression of hIGF-1R. As showed in FIG. 21, strong membranous staining is observed on the 3 positive tissues (MCF-7, NCI-H23 and NCI-H82). No membranous staining was observed on the Hs746t selected as a negative tumor. For staining analysis, slides were scanned using HT scanner form Roche Ventana and IGF-1R staining was quantified using Virtuoso software (Roche Ventana). For tissue analysis 4 fields of view (FOVs) per tumors were scored, when possible, with more than 50 cells in order to increase the statistical accuracy of the algorithm. Tissues were scored +++ (also described as 3+), ++ to +++ (also described as 2+ to 3+ or as ++/+++), ++ (also described as 2+), + (also described as 1+) according to HER2 membranous algorithm. Scoring was defined following CAP/ASCO Testing guideline as (+) for weak or incomplete membrane staining or weak, complete membrane staining in less than 10% of cells in the sample. A score of (++) described as a complete membrane staining that is non-uniform or weak but with obvious circumferential distribution in at least 10% of cells, or intense complete membrane staining in 30% or less of tumor cells. A score of (+++) corresponds to a uniform intense membrane staining of more that 30% of invasive tumor cells. When tumors were scored (++) to (+++), it traduces heterogeneity in the tumoral analyzed tissue (−) means that no expression of hIGF-1R was detected and (c) means that the staining is exclusively cytoplasmic. Cytoplasmic staining is characterized by the absence of membranous staining that make isolated cells.

An extended study was then performed on normal and tumor tissues using the above protocol (FIGS. 22 A and B).

For these studies, human normal and tumor TMA from Superbiochips were used to perform distribution and prevalence studies. Two different controls were introduced in each autostainer cycle. One control consisted on placenta sections known to be a positive control for its IGF-1R expression and provided with the normal TMA tissues. A second series of controls consisted on 3 slides of tumor xenograft tissues presenting score 2+ or 3+ (MCF-7 and NCI-H23, NCI-H82 respectively). This latter control is added in each staining run order to calibrate the expression.

As expected, placenta and tissue from xenograft were, positive for hIGF-1R. A strong membranous staining was observed in these 4 controls. In the first panel of human normal tissues (FIG. 22A), slight membranous detection of IGF-1R that never exceeded 1+ was observed in the gastric tract (esophagus, small bowel, colon and rectum). For all other analyzed tissues, no membranous expression of IGF-1R was observed. In the second panel of normal human tissues (FIG. 22B), slight membranous detection of IGF-1R never exceeding 1+ was observed in kidney structures. Strong membranous staining (++) was observed on the epithelium of the prostate and on urothelium. Excepted for these both tissues, no strong membranous staining was observed. This pattern of expression strongly suggested that hIGF-1R could be a good target for ADC or ATC approaches.

In order to determine the potential indications for an immunoconjugate targeting IGF-1R, lung, breast, head and neck, bladder and kidney tumor samples from patient were analyzed for their expression of IGF-1R using the protocol described above.

Among the 69 lung samples studied, 67 cases were interpretable. IGF-1R expression was quantified as described above. As shown in FIG. 23, strong membranous expression is detected on many carcinomas compared to normal adjacent tissues that are negatives in agreement with what we have already described above on normal tissues. All analyzed cases were summarized in Table 15. 55% of either ++ or +++ cases are observed including all subtypes of lung cancer. Squamous cell lung carcinomas were the most expressive hIGF-1R tumors with 70% ++, ++/+++, or +++ cases and 43% keeping only +++ and ++/+++ tumors. These results are in agreement with published data that described frequent high polysomies or hIGF-1R amplifications in squamous cell lung carcinoma patients.

TABLE 15 IGF-1R EXPRESSION NORMAL TISSUE Lung adenocarcinoma, well differentiated 18/30 (−) (−) T2bN2M0 IIIA 103 6 Lung adenocarcinoma, well differentiated 0/15 (−) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 104 6 Lung adenocarcinoma, well differentiated 0/39 (+) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 108 6 Lung adenocarcinoma, well differentiated 22/22 (−) (−) T3N2M0 IIIA 157 6 Lung adenocarcinoma, moderately differentiated 0/6 (+) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 156 6 Lung adenocarcinoma, moderately differentiated 0/30 (+) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 102 6 Lung adenocarcinoma, moderately differentiated 0/12 (+) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 158 6 Lung adenocarcinoma, moderately differentiated 2/15 (−) (−) T3N2M0 IIIA 159 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 5/43 (+) to (++) (−) T2aN1M0 IIA 101 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 0/15 (+) to (++) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 109 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 2/20 (+++) (−) T3N2M0 IIIA 113 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 4/61 (++) to (+++) (−) T2aN1M0 IIA 115 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 0/17 (++) to (+++) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 120 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 1/46 (++) to (+++) (−) T2bN1M0 IB 121 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 1/43 (++) to (+++) (−) T2aN1M0 IIA 123 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 8/28 (++) (−) T2aN2M0 IIIA 136 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 0/17 (++) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 137 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 0/19 (++) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 139 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 4/32 (++) (−) T2aN2M0 IIIA 144 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 0/24 (+++) (−) T2bN0M0 IIA 148 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, well differentiated 5/40 (+++) (−) T2bN1M0 MB 150 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (+++) (−) 0/20 T2aN0M0 IB 155 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (+) (−) 1/15 T2bN1M0 IIB 105 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (+) to (++) (−) 0/8 T2aN0M0 IB 106 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (+++) (−) 0/16 T3N0M0 IIB 110 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (−) (−) 0/16 T2aN0M0 IB 118 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (++) (−) 0/34 T2bN0M0 IIA 119 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (+++) (−) 5/18 T2aN2M0 IIIA 126 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (+++) (−) 1/25 T2aN1M0 IIA 129 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (++) to (+++) (−) 0/22 T2bN0M0 IIA 130 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (−) (−) 3/21 T2aN1M0 IIA 131 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (+) to (++) (−) 2/18 T1bN1M0 IIA 134 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (++) (−) 1/33 T2aN1M0 IIA 138 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (+++) (−) 1/25 T2aN1M0 IIA 145 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (++) to (+++) (−) 0/21 T2aN0M0 IB 146 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated (++) (−) 0/28 T3N0M0 IIB 151 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated 0/50 (+++) (−) T4N0M0 IIIA 132 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated 1/3 (−) (−) T2aN2M0 IIIA 135 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated 0/22 (+) to (++) (−) T3N0M0 IIB 140 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated 0/22 (+++) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 141 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated 0/18 (++) (−) T2bN0M0 IIA 128 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated 0/11 (+) to (++) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 147 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated 0/12 (++) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 152 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, poorly differentiated 0/14 (−) (−) T3N0M0 IIB 153 6 Lung squamous cell carcinoma, spindle cell 0/10 (++) (−) T1bN0M0 IA 122 6 Lung carcinosarcoma 0/6 T3N0M0 IIB 111 6 (−) (−) Lung carcinosarcoma 0/14 T2aN0M0 IB 154 6 (+++) (−) Lung large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma 0/7 (+++) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 112 6 Lung large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma 0/38 (+) (−) T3N0M0 IIB 133 6 Lung large cell carcinoma 0/9 T2aN0M0 IB 114 6 (++) to (+++) (−) Lung large cell carcinoma 0/14 T1bN0M0 IA 125 6 (+) (−) Lung large cell carcinoma 0/33 T2aN0M0 IB 142 6 (++) (−) Lung bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, non-mucinous 7/17 (−) (−) T3N2M0 IIIA 107 6 Lung bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, non-mucinous 0/8 (−) (−) T2bN0M0 IIA 116 6 Lung bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, non-mucinous 2/24 (+) (−) T1aN1M0 IIA 149 6 Lung bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, mucinous 0/8 (−) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 117 6 Lung bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, mucinous 0/24 (++) (−) T2aN0M0 IB 124 6 Lung bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, mucinous 0/9 n/a (−) T3N0M0 IIB 127 6 Lung bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, mucinous 1/11 (+) (−) T1bN1M0 IIA 143 6

Another study of IGF-1R expression has been performed on a series of 10 breast cancer samples. Results shown in FIG. 24 demonstrated that IGF-1R is highly expressed on cancer tissues compared to the adjacent normal tissues. Staining data summarized in Table 16 demonstrated that 66% of analyzed cases were ++, ++/+++ or +++ and 22% of the analyzed case were +++ or ++/+++.

TABLE 16 EXPRESSION (membranous NORMAL staining) TISSUE Breast infiltrating duct carcinoma T2N0M0 (+++) (+) Breast infiltrating duct carcinoma T3N2aM0 (+) c Breast infiltrating duct carcinoma T2N3aM0 n/a n/a Breast infiltrating duct carcinoma T3N1aM0 (+) (+) Breast infiltrating papillary carcinoma with signet ring cell carcinoma (++) to (+++) (+) T3N1aM0* Breast infiltrating duct carcinoma T3N3aM0 (++) (+) Breast mixed infiltrating duct and lobular carcinoma T3N2aM0 (++) c Breast medullary carcinoma T3N0M0* (+) to (++) 0 to (+) Breast atypical medullary carcinoma T2N1aM0 (++) 0 to (+) Breast infiltrating ductal carcinoma T2N0M0* (++) 0 to (+) *Cases illustrated

Finally overexpression of IGF-1R was shown in a series of tumors including Head and Neck, urinary bladder and kidney (FIG. 25). Once again a high overexpression of IGF-1R was noticed on tumor samples versus normal adjacent tissues.

Taken together, these results are in agreement with an immunoconjugate approach to treat many tumors IGF-1R positives including lung, breast, head and neck, urinary bladder and kidney.

Example 14: Definition of the Dissociation Constant (K_(D)) of the Binding of Five Chimeric Anti-IGF-1R Antibodies (c208F2, c213B10, c212A11, c214F8 and c219D6) and a Humanized Version (VH3NL3) of the 208F2 Antibody on a Soluble Recombinant Human IGF-1R

The dissociation constants (K_(D)) of the binding of the antibodies on a recombinant soluble human-IGF-1R were defined by the ratio between the dissociation rate (k_(off)) and the association rate (k_(on)). The kinetic experiments were run on a Biacore X100 device using a CM5 sensor chip activated by a mouse anti-Tag His monoclonal antibody. Around 12000 RU of antibodies are chemically grafted on the carboxymethyldextan matrix using the amine kit chemistry.

The experiments were carried out at 25° C. with a flow rate of 30 μl/min using the HBS-EP+ buffer (GE Healthcare) as the running and sample dilution buffer.

The single cycle kinetic scheme was used to define the kinetic parameters of the binding of the anti-IGF-1R antibodies on a soluble recombinant human IGF-1R captured by its two C-terminal 10 Histidine-tag.

-   -   1—A solution of a soluble recombinant version of the human         IGF-1R hetero-tetramere: 2a chains and the extracellular domains         of 2β chains expressed with an additional C-terminal 10-His tag         (R&D Systems catalogue number 305-GR-50) was injected during one         minute on the second flowcell at a concentration of 10 μg/ml. A         mean of 587 RU (with a standard deviation 24 RU) of the soluble         receptor were captured at each of the 24 cycles realised for         this study.     -   2—After the capture phase, either the running buffer was         injected 5 times (90 s each injection) or a growing range of 5         concentrations of one of the six antibodies was injected (90 s         each injection) on both flowcells. At the end of the fifth         injection the running buffer was passed during 5 minutes in         order to define the dissociation rate.     -   3—The surface was then generated with an injection of a 10 mM         Glycine, HCl pH 1.5 buffer during 45 s.

The computed signal corresponds to the difference between the response of the flowcell 2 (with captured IGF-1R) and the response of the flowcell 1 (without any IGF-1R molecules).

For each IGF-1R the signal due to the injections the growing range of concentrations of one antibody was corrected by subtraction of the signal obtained with the 5 injections of the buffer (double reference) see FIG. 26.

The resulting sensorgrams were analysed by the Biaevaluation software with a 1:1 model.

Four experiences were run for each antibody using two different ranges of concentrations: 40, 20, 10, 5 and 2.5 nM for the two first experiments and: 24, 12, 6, 3 and 1.5 nM for the two last experiments run for each antibody.

For the 6 antibodies tested in this experiment the experimental data fitted well with an 1:1 model with significant k_(off) values when the higher concentration was defined as a constant and the other four concentrations are calculated (see FIG. 27).

The dissociation constants (K_(D)) calculated as the ratio: k_(off)/k_(on) and the half-live of the complexes calculated as the ratio: Ln(2)/k_(off) are represented in the FIGS. 28 and 29. They correspond to the mean of the four independent experiments run for each antibodies. The error bars correspond to the standard errors (n=4) of the values.

The dissociation constants are in the range of 10 to 100 pM. The c208F2 antibody presents the weaker affinity (higher dissociation constant value) for the h-IGF-1R (with a K_(D) around 75 pM) and its humanized version is at least as good as the chimeric version (with a K_(D) around 60 pM). The four other anti-IGF-1R chimeric antibodies present a quite similar affinity for the hIGF1-R (with a K_(D) around 30 pM). The difference of the affinities is principally linked to the dissociation rate or the resultant half life of the complexes. With 208F2 the half-life of the complex is between 2 and 3 hour with the chimeric and the humanized (VH3/VL3) versions. For the four other chimeric antibodies the means half lives are between 7.0 and 9.4 h.

These very slow dissociation kinetics are clearly linked to the bivalent structure of the antibodies which are able to bind simultaneously by both of their Fab arms to two adjacent h-IGF-1R molecules. In this case the level of captured IGF-1R molecules may have an impact on the dissociation rate. The affinities defined in this study correspond to the functional affinities (or avidities) of the antibodies for a level of captured h-IGF-1R around 600 RU. The 3 fold difference of KD observed between data shown above (table 10) and values presented in example 13 is linked to a change of the level of capture of hIGF-1R (600RU versus 160 RU in example 5).

Example 15: Definition of Mouse IGF-1R Specific Residues which Prevent the Binding of c208F2 Using Soluble Forms of Chimerical h/m IGF-1R Recombinant Proteins

The binding of the soluble forms of chimerical h/m IGF-1R recombinant proteins on the c208F2 antibody experiments were run on a Biacore X100 device using a CM5 sensor chip activated by a mouse anti-human IgG Fc monoclonal antibody. More than 10,500 RU of the anti-Fc antibody are chemically grafted on the carboxymethyldextan matrix of both flowcells using the amine kit chemistry.

The experiments were carried out at 25° C. with a flow rate of 30 μl/min using the HBS-EP+ buffer as the running and sample dilution solution.

The set up of the experiment was as follow:

-   -   1—A solution of c208F2 at the concentration of 10 μg/ml was         injected during 60 s on the second flowcell.     -   2—The IGF-1R constructs tested corresponds to concentrated         supernatants of culture medium diluted 10 times in the running         buffer. One construction was injected at each cycle during 120 s         with a delay of 120 s.     -   3—Both flowcells were regenerated by an injection of 10 mM         Glycine, HCl pH 1.7 buffer during 30 s.

FIG. 30 shows the superposition of two cycles. h-IGF-1R and m-IGF-1R supernatants were injected during the first and the second cycle respectively. This experiment shows clearly the inability of the m-IGF-1R to bind to the c208F2 antibody the positions used for the determination of the c208F2 capture level and of the IGF-1R binding level are indicated by double headed arrows.

The extracellular domains of IGFR (without the signal peptide) are composed of 805 and 806 amino acid for the human and mouse sequence respectively.

869 residues (96%) are identical in both structures. 37 residues of the mouse sequence are different from the corresponding human sequence. One difference corresponds to a gap.

As shown on FIG. 31, among the 7 chimerical constructs tested 4 (C1 (SEQ ID No. 83), C4 (SEQ ID No. 86), C7 (SEQ ID No. 88) and C8 (SEQ ID No. 89)) bind as well as the h-IGF-1R to c208F2, 3 constructs (C2 (SEQ ID No. 84), C3 (SEQ ID No. 85) and C6 (SEQ ID No. 87)) as the mIGF-1R (SEQ ID No. 91) do not bind to c208F2.

The binding of C1 and the lack of binding of C2 suggest that the mouse specific residues blocking the binding of c208F2 are located in the N-terminal half of the protein. So the last eleven specific mouse amino acids located in the C-terminal half have no influence on the binding of c208F2.

The lack of binding of C3 demonstrates a major contribution of one mouse specific residue the Arg instead of the His at position 494. This result is confirmed by the lack of binding of C6 which contains two mouse specific residues: His494>Arg and Ser501>Trp.

The binding of C4 suggests that the only mouse specific residue Trp at the position 501 of this chimerical IGF-1R is not responsible of the lack of binding of the C2 and C6.

The binding of C7 suggests that none of the 17 mouse specific residues present in this constructs have any weight in the blocking of the binding of c208F2.

Likewise, the binding of C8 excludes 4 other mouse specific residues.

The C12 mutant of the human IGF1R which presents the three mouse residues in the L1 domain ie Phe at position 28 instead of Tyr, Ile at the position 125 instead of Val and Leu at the position 156 instead of Met binds c208F2 at a sub nanomolar dissociation constant. This experiment confirms that the L1 domain is not involved in the binding of the antibody or at least that the 3 positions which differentiated the mouse and the human sequences are not responsible of the absence of binding of the antibody on the murin form of the IGF1R.

As shown on the FIG. 33, the hz208F2 is not able to bind to 120 RU of the C29 mutant (Asp491>Ala) of the soluble form of the h-IGF1R captured on a CM5 sensorchip by its 6His C-terminal tag (white diamonds) whereas the same solution of the antibody clearly binds (black diamonds) to 170 RU of the wild type form of the soluble receptor. As the His 494, the Asp 491 is critical for the affinity of the hz208F2 for the IGF1R. Crystallographic data show that both residues are exposed at the surface of the receptor in the FnR3 domain.

Taken together these results demonstrated that hz208F2 binds to the FnR3 domain of IGF-1R and that the epitope recognized by this antibody contains the His 494 and the Asp 491 that are crucial for antibody binding. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. An internalizing anti-IGF-1R antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, said antibody being selected from: a. an antibody comprising three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3 and three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11; b. an antibody comprising three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3 and three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 10, 5 and 11; c. an antibody comprising three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3 and three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 12; and d. an antibody comprising three heavy chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 8, 2 and 3 and three light chain CDRs of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and
 11. 2. The internalizing anti-IGF-1R antibody or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof of claim 1, said antibody being a chimeric antibody.
 3. The internalizing anti-IGF-1R antibody or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof of claim 1, said antibody being a humanized antibody.
 4. The internalizing anti-IGF-1R antibody or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof of claim 3, said antibody comprising: a. a heavy chain having CDR-H1, CDR-H2 and CDR-H3 of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 7, 2 and 3, respectively, and FR1, FR2 and FR3 derived from the human germline IGHV1-46*01 (SEQ ID No. 44), and the FR4 derived from the human germline IGHJ4*01 (SEQ ID No. 46); and b. a light chain having CDR-L1, CDR-L2 and CDR-L3 of sequences SEQ ID Nos. 9, 5 and 11, respectively, and FR1, FR2 and FR3 derived from the human germline IGKV1-39*01 (SEQ ID No. 45), and the FR4 derived from the human germline IGKJ4*01 (SEQ ID No. 47).
 5. The internalizing anti-IGF-1R antibody or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof of claim 4, said antibody comprising: a. a heavy chain variable domain (VH) of sequence SEQ ID No. 33 comprising at least 1 back-mutation, wherein the at least 1 back-mutation is selected from residues 20, 34, 35, 38, 48, 50, 59, 61, 62, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77, 79, 82 and 95; and b. a light chain variable domain (VL) of sequence SEQ ID No. 35 comprising at least 1 back-mutation, wherein the at least 1 back-mutation is selected from residues 22, 53, 55, 65, 71, 72, 77 and
 87. 6. A murine hybridoma selected from the hybridoma I-4757, I-4773, I-4775, I-4736 and I-4774 deposited at the CNCM, Institut Pasteur France on the 30 May 2013, 26 Jun. 2013, 26 Jun. 2013, 24 Apr. 2013 and 26 Jun. 2013, respectively.
 7. An antibody-drug conjugate comprising the internalizing anti-IGF-1R antibody, or an internalizing IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, according to claim 1, conjugated to a cytotoxic agent.
 8. A pharmaceutical composition comprising an internalizing anti-IGF-1R antibody of claim 1 and at least an excipient and/or a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle.
 9. A method for the treatment of an IGF-1R expressing cancer in a subject, comprising administering to said subject an effective amount of at least the antibody-drug conjugate of claim
 7. 10. A method of delivering a drug or a medicament to an IGF-1R expressing cancer cell in a subject, comprising administering to said subject an effective amount of at least the antibody-drug conjugate of claim
 7. 11. A method for delivering a cytotoxic agent at a host target site, said host target site consisting of an epitope localized within the IGF-1R extracellular domain, said method comprising administering the internalizing anti-IGF-1R antibody, or an internalizing anti-IGF-1R binding fragment thereof, of claim 5 as an addressing vehicle.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein said IGF-1R extracellular domain is the human IGF-1R extracellular domain of SEQ ID No.
 51. 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the IGF-1R extracellular domain is the human IGF-1R extracellular domain N terminus region of SEQ ID No.
 52. 14. A method of treating cancer, comprising administering the antibody-drug conjugate of claim 7 to a patient in need thereof.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein said cancer is an IGF-1R expressing cancer.
 16. A pharmaceutical composition comprising an antibody-drug conjugate of claim 7 and at least an excipient and/or a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle.
 17. A method for the treatment of an IGF-1R expressing cancer in a subject, comprising administering to said subject an effective amount of at least the pharmaceutical composition of claim
 8. 18. A method of delivering a drug or a medicament to an IGF-1R expressing cancer cell in a subject, comprising administering to said subject an effective amount of at least the pharmaceutical composition of claim
 8. 19. A method of treating cancer, comprising administering the pharmaceutical composition of claim 8 to a patient in need thereof.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein said cancer is an IGF-1R expressing cancer.
 21. A method for the treatment of an IGF-1R expressing cancer in a subject, comprising administering to said subject an effective amount of at least the pharmaceutical composition of claim
 16. 22. A method of delivering a drug or a medicament to an IGF-1R expressing cancer cell in a subject, comprising administering to said subject an effective amount of at least the pharmaceutical composition of claim
 16. 23. A method of treating cancer, comprising administering the pharmaceutical composition of claim 16 to a patient in need thereof.
 24. The method of claim 23, wherein said cancer is an IGF-1R expressing cancer. 